Rubymar becomes first constructive total loss of the Red Sea shipping crisis

The Rubymar, a general cargo vessel carrying a cargo of fertilizer, has become the first constructive total loss of the Red Sea shipping crisis.

The ship was struck by missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on on February 18 forcing the crew to evacuate. The ship then started to seep bunker fuel and was seen very low at its stern. On Saturday the ship sunk with UK security consultants Ambrey suggesting that a couple of days prior there had been another attack on the abandoned, drifting vessel. 

Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, the prime minister of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, called the ship’s sinking “an unprecedented environmental disaster.”

“It’s a new disaster for our country and our people,” he wrote on X. 

In total, some 60 ships have been targeted by the Houthis in the five months since Israel went to war with Hamas.