A day before Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, the Indian-flagged LPG tanker Pine Gas loaded cargo at the UAE's Ruwais port, hoping to reach home within a week.
However, it would be nearly three weeks before the vessel safely transited the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran began selectively allowing ships through the narrow waterway.
The ship's 27 Indian crew had seen missiles and drones flying overhead every day as they waited.
Indian officials had asked the crew to be on standby to set sail around March 11, but with the war escalating, it took until March 23 before the ship was cleared to move.
Instead of taking the normal Hormuz shipping lanes, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps instructed the tanker to navigate a narrow channel north of Larak Island off Iran's coast.
The Indian Navy guided the ship during the transit before four Indian warships escorted it for nearly 20 hours from the Gulf of Oman to the Arabian Sea.
The Pine Gas, carrying 45,000 metric tons of LPG, was originally scheduled to unload at the west coast port of Mangalore but Indian authorities directed it to discharge equal volumes at the eastern ports of Visakhapatnam and Hladia.
