Still Unclear what Damaged a Japanese Tanker

Officials said Thursday that they were examining the hull of a Japanese oil tanker that was mysteriously damaged Wednesday morning as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a busy shipping passage between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. The ship’s owner has said they believe the damage was caused by an explosion and that it may have been an attack.



The tanker docked in the United Arab Emirates where Britain’s Maritime Trade Operations and the United States Navy are now investigating what caused shattered windows on the vessel, knocked off a lifeboat and punched a dent into its hull. Photos of the interior show broken ceiling panels and exposed insulation and wiring in one of the dining rooms.



Mitsui officials said that crewmembers on the ship, the M. Star, had seen a flash and heard an explosion.



American military officials believe that the photographs showed damage more consistent with a collision, perhaps with a dock or another ship. But the Mitsui officials reported no collisions.



Most officials dismissed the idea of a collision with a submarine, because no damaged sub is known to have surfaced.



One crewmember aboard the Japanese tanker was slightly injured when the ship was damaged, but the ship’s owner said no oil had leaked from the damaged hull. The company said the tanker had loaded up with about two million barrels of crude oil in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and had been heading for Japan.



Other speculation is that an old mine was adrift and bumped the ship; if it had degraded, it could have simply produced a pressure blast. There are still mines in the region from the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.