This photo shows the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moeller Triple-E Class container ship. The Pentagon said a different Maersk ship, the Maersk Tigris, was seized by the Iran navy. Pentagon: Iran has seized cargo ship

Iran seized a commercial cargo ship in the Persian Gulf early Tuesday and ordered it to sail into Iranian territorial waters, the Pentagon said.

There are no Americans in the crew of more than 30 aboard the container ship Maersk Tigris, defense officials said, and the vessel is registered in the Marshall Islands. But the U.S. has the ship under observation by maritime patrol aircraft, and the destroyer USS Farragut has been ordered to make best speed to the closest point it can in international waters.


It’s unclear what the Farragut will do once it reaches the area, or how close it can approach.

Defense officials said Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps patrol vessels evidently ordered the Maersk Tigris to stop as it was underway in the Strait of Hormuz on its way into the Persian Gulf, but the ship’s crew initially did not comply. The patrol boats then fired warning shots across the container ship’s bridge and its master obeyed the Iranian commands, but not before making a general distress call.

The Maersk Tigris then moved with the Iranian vessels to a position near Larak Island, off the Iranian coast, in one of the narrowest portions of the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The strait connects the Persian Gulf with the Arabian Sea.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps troops have apparently boarded the ship. It isn’t clear whether the seizure of the Maersk Tigris was ordered by higher-level commanders inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guard or a local leader decided on his own to accost it.

The Farragut is carrying Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin-built MH-60 Seahawk helicopters, which could take off and observe the cargo ship in once the U.S. destroyer gets closer.

Iran’s seizure of the cargo vessel follows a maritime standoff between an Iranian cargo convoy apparently bound for Yemen and a group of American warships in the Arabian Sea. The U.S. is supporting a Saudi-led military campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, and commanders did not want Iran to resupply the Houthis with weapons or other assistance.

After several tense days at sea that included the movement of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt from the Persian Gulf into the Arabian Sea, the Iranian convoy sailed east, in international waters, off the coast of Oman, according to defense officials.

The ownership and cargo of the Maersk Tigris are unclear. The ship last made port in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, according to public websites that track the movements of ships. Iran and Saudi Arabia are regional rivals, but it’s unclear whether the ship’s stop in Jeddah is connected with its capture.

Maersk is a Danish shipping conglomerate and one of the world’s largest carriers of maritime cargo; Maersk Line, Ltd. is a major vendor of the U.S. Military Sealift Command and carries large amounts of U.S. military cargo. Its cargo ship Maersk Alabama was hijacked by pirates off Somalia in 2009, who then took its captain hostage in a lifeboat. He was rescued by the U.S. Navy in events later depicted in the movie “Captain Phillips.”

A State Department official said that U.S .Naval Forces Central Command region “is communicating with representatives of the shipping company, and is continuing to monitor the situation.”