Red Sea Piracy

 

Red Sea Piracy

"There was panic, but we knew we had to move. It's like we were on autopilot. [The crew] were in a daze, but they were all rushing to do their assigned jobs for our safety protocol ... maybe I looked dazed too."

"There were speedboats from the right, left and back of our ship. There was also a bigger boat with around 15 crew who were attempting to board our ship, but luckily, our armed guards were able to stop them."

"I lost count of how many hits we took. The flooding had started so we decided to abandon the ship. We deployed our lifeboat, all 22 of us, and left our main vessel."

Filipino seafarer Cocoy

Smoke plumes rising on the Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas after an attack by the Houthis in the Red Sea, on July 8, 2025. (ANSARULLAH MEDIA CENTRE / AFP)

 

Off-duty and resting in his cabin, Filipino sailor Cocoy was sent into shock when he heard his captain's voice boom over the cargo ship's intercom: "We are under attack". The sound he had earlier heard like a knock from within the vessel was then revealed to his realization that what he had dismissed as an ordinary ship's sound was that of gunfire exchanged by ship security and Houthi terrorists whose small boats were swarming the ship.

 

The assault on the Greek-owned Magic Seas on July 6 was the first in a long lull, with the Yemeni Houthis having agreed to suspend their attacks on Red Sea Shipping in an agreement with the U.S. to suspend bombing them in response to their predations on international shipping. Following the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel and the IDF's bombing in Gaza to target the Palestinian terrorist group, Iran's Yemen proxies decided they would impose pirate-actions on any ships they identified as  having a link to Israel, whether through ownership or trade.

 

Cocoy and the other crew members aboard the Magic Seas scrambled toward the "muster station" at ship's center, considered to represent the safest area on the ship should a projectile strike the vessel. There were 22 sailors aboard the ship, of whom 17 were Filipino. They huddled inside the muster station for close to five hours while the ship's three armed Sri Lankan security guards did their best to counter the attack.   

"During the gunfight, the faces of my wife and child flashed before my eyes. I kept thinking ... will they survive without me?"

"I thought I was going to die."

"They were the longest hours of my life."

This handout image released by Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah Media Centre on July 8, 2025, reportedly shows Houthi-affiliated fighters carrying out an attack on the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Magic Seas at sea. (Photo by ANSARULLAH MEDIA CENTRE / AFP)

 

Five ballistic and cruise missiles and three drones had been used by the Houthis in their attack on the ship. Filipino sailors sent home to the Philippines close to $7 billion in 2023, an amount representing a fifth of remittances its nationals forward to the archipelago nation. Up to 30 percent of the globe's commercial shipping force is comprised of Filipino sailors. Despite his 15 years as a seafarer, this was the first passage that Cocoy had experienced through the Red Sea, one he spoke of as a case of "really bad timing". 

 

Cocoy and his shipmates spent three hours floating in the Red Sea after abandoning ship, before being picked up by a Panama-flagged container ship. They watched as the Magic Seas sank beneath the waves. A week later yet another vessel, crewed in large part by Filipino sailors, was attacked and sunk. Ten of those aboard the Eternity C, were rescued, while 15 of the crew are either dead or missing in the deadliest such assault since last March, when three people were killed in a Houthi missile attack on another ship.

 

Members of the crew of the Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged commercial vessel Magic Seas, posing for a picture with the crew of the Safeen Prism, after they were rescued following a Houthi attack that forced them to abandon ship, in the Red Sea on July 6, 2025. (UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation / AFP)

 

The Houthis announced last week that they had "rescued" a number of the Eternity C's crew, to take them to a 'safe location'. The US. government promptly charged them with kidnapping. Lloyd's List, a maritime news journal, reported six Filipino seafarers as "believed taken hostage".  Plagued by nightmares of the attack, Cocoy feels uncertain whether he will return to the sea, urging ship owners to discover routes avoiding the Red Sea.

 

This handout picture provided by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs reportedly shows members of the Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged Magic Seas commercial vessel climbing on board the Safeen Prism, after being rescued following a Houthi attack that forced them to abandon ship, in the Red Sea on July 6, 2025. (UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation / AFP)

 

"I felt terrified for the [missing] Eternity C crew."

"We were just lucky, because all of us survived ... I pray that many of their crew can still be located live."

"What happened to us was not normal. It's something that no one should ever experience."

Filipino Seafarer Cocoy