Blocking and trapping
An extension of marine war covers that indemnifies the total loss of a vessel prevented from leaving a port or area by a blockade or act of war, after a prolonged blocking period, often twelve months.
A vessel can be lost to its owner without suffering the slightest damage: it is enough for a blockade, the closure of a waterway, the presence of mines or a ban by the authorities to prevent it from leaving the port or area where it lies. The hull policy does not respond, for lack of physical damage, and basic war cover does not always cover this deprivation. The blocking and trapping extension fills that gap: when the vessel is blocked by a covered war peril for a continuous period set in the contract, often twelve months, sometimes six, the owner may declare it a constructive total loss and be indemnified for its insured value, the vessel then becoming the insurers' property. The extension is often sublimited, and underwriting it in conflict zones requires a political judgment on the likely duration of the blockade. It illustrates the particularity of war risks: the loss is not an event but a duration, and its cost depends on a political decision over which neither owner nor insurer has any control. It thus parallels the logic of forced abandonment in onshore political risk.
After February 24, 2022, some sixty foreign vessels found themselves trapped in Ukrainian ports, with their crews. For those whose war cover included the extension, the twelve-month count began; several were able to leave in 2022 and 2023 through negotiated corridors, while others were declared total losses.
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