Families of sailors killed in Gulf struggle for compensation and closure

Sumit Kumar Singh, a sailor from eastern India, did not hesitate when a job opened up on a ship ferrying oil in the Persian Gulf. He knew it was dangerous work, but he needed the money.

On Sept. 12, he told his wife, Komal Priya, that his ship would soon enter the Strait of Hormuz. He said he would call her once he arrived at its destination. Instead, early the next morning, Priya received a call from a crew member saying that her husband and another sailor were missing after the ship, the El Gaia, was struck by an Iranian missile and a drone.

Oil exports from the Persian Gulf have rebounded, with more tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz. But the journey remains incredibly risky. Since the war began, there have been more than 100 attacks. At least 26 ships have been struck this month alone, making it the most dangerous period during the war in Iran. Even as the regional conflict has escalated in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the strait remains a deadly focus of fighting.

For going on eight months, thousands of sailors have been working on the front line of the war, supporting families far away. At least 25 of them have been killed, almost all by Iran, and four are missing. The first fatality was hours after the war began, and the most recent report of sailors who are missing or dead was Monday.

On the El Gaia, projectiles struck the engine room, and Singh died in the ensuing fire. Grief has left Priya barely able to eat, said her brother, Aditya Raj, who recounted the family’s experience. Around the house, the children, ages 4 and 7, ask where their father is.

The New York Times interviewed members of seven families, including Raj, who lost husbands, fathers, and brothers to attacks in or around the Strait of Hormuz. It reviewed incident reports, communications between shipping companies and families, and life insurance records, and spoke to industry analysts and officials who were monitoring conditions in the region.

The family members described to the Times their trauma and horror when learning of the deaths, and they spoke of their subsequent frustrations trying to secure compensation as survivors while trying to make sense of what happened. In most cases, the sailor’s salary supported his family. Only one family said it had received compensation, about $150,000.

“We don’t have anything to do with Iran and America, and we are losing our family members and our loved ones,” Raj said. “Don’t they know on those vessels there are innocent people?”

Most of the world’s sailors are from Asia — India, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, among others — as well as Russia and Ukraine. The pay at sea is generally much higher than in jobs at home.

That was the case with Singh, who was making $1,500 a month on the El Gaia, more than what most people in his state, Bihar, made in a year. He was the family’s sole breadwinner, and his wife, Priya, has enough money to support their children for another three to six months, Raj said. The family is in limbo, awaiting compensation for Singh’s death, as well as for the authorities to identify his remains and return them to India for a funeral, Raj said. The shipowner does not have publicly listed contact information and could not be reached for comment.

One of the first ships to be attacked in the war was the Skylight, struck on March 1. One of the sailors who was killed, Dalip Singh, 26, had just hours earlier taken a video call with his brother and parents in Rajasthan, India. He asked about the village and for their updates, recalled his younger brother, Manoj Singh. “A normal family conversation,” he said.

When his parents learned about their son’s death, they were devastated. His father died of a heart attack six weeks later, Singh said. His mother has hardly gotten out of bed.

Singh said his family had been told that it could not be compensated until it had sent a death certificate, which the family has not been able to obtain. “My brother is gone,” he said. “We cannot reverse that. Now compensation should be given so there is some element of certainty in our lives.”

The Skylight ship, under U.S. sanctions, was managed by an Emirati company, Red Sea Ship Management, which is also under U.S. sanctions, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Maritime law requires shipowners to pay financial damages to survivors of sailors killed on ships. The levels of compensation depend on many factors, including the anticipated earnings potential of the deceased. But some ships operate outside the law, and families are likely to find it harder to get compensation from their owners. This group of ships includes a growing category of vessels known as the shadow fleet, some of which operate with substandard or fraudulent insurance.

Most of the sailors who died in the war were killed in attacks by Iranian forces. But three sailors on the Settebello, which in recent years had ferried oil from Iran, were killed in a U.S. Navy attack. U.S. Central Command said the ship violated the U.S. blockade and ignored warnings to change course.

None of their families have received compensation, and the ship’s operator, IOS Marine, based in the United Arab Emirates, has stopped responding to their requests, according to relatives of all three sailors killed. They said the company had asked them to provide documents that were difficult to obtain, such as death certificates or other documents showing they were the rightful heirs. IOS Marine did not respond to several requests for comment.

The chief engineer of the Settebello was Suresh Patnala, 44. His wife, Bhargavi Patnala, was getting ready for bed when she received a WhatsApp message from the job agency that had recruited him: Suresh was missing. “Regret to inform you,” the message began. The next day the agency called to say he was dead.

That was in June. Patnala, who lives in an eastern Indian port city with her two children, is grieving. She is also running out of cash.

IOS Marine turned over her husband’s last paycheck through June 10, the day he died, she said.

Patnala said her repeated requests for compensation had gone nowhere. “I think I am wasting my time,” she said. She and her husband used his salary to cover all the family’s costs, including school fees for their children, ages 10 and 13.

Patnala’s claim on her husband’s life insurance policy was denied because his death was in a war zone, which the policy did not cover, according to documents seen by the Times.

“It is understood from the submitted documents that Mr. Patnala Suresh was expired in Oman in US Strike on MT Settebello Tanker on 10 June 2026 related to war,” the rejection letter said. “Hence the claim falls outside the purview of policy terms and conditions.”

Patnala said she and her husband used to take their children on trips to Tirupati Balaji Temple, a Hindu shrine surrounded by rolling hills. It was their favorite place.

She has no plans to ever go back. “I’m not going to trust anymore these temples and gods,” she said.

Rajesh Sharma, the father of another Settebello casualty, Aditya Sharma, a 23-year-old trainee cadet, has written emails to Indian officials to implore the government to ensure that families would be compensated. His most recent was Monday. He did not receive a response.

Sharma said Aditya used to run several miles each morning by their home in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The Settebello was Aditya’s first job on a ship, and he made $200 per month, but he dreamed of becoming a ship captain one day.

“My son was our only child,” Sharma said. “We miss him every moment.”