State detainment of a vessel
A marine war peril in which a state immobilizes a vessel; beyond an agreed period, usually twelve months, the insured may treat it as a total loss.
Capture, seizure, arrest, restraint or detainment of a vessel by a state are among the perils covered by the marine war risks policy and excluded from ordinary hull cover. The difficulty lies in duration: a detained vessel is neither destroyed nor lost, only unavailable, and the owner keeps paying crew, insurance and financing. London market clauses settle the question with a time limit: when the insured has been deprived of the free use of the vessel for a continuous period of twelve months, it may claim a constructive total loss. Before that threshold, the loss of earnings falls under a separate cover, often not purchased. For the underwriter, the peril is priced less on the vessel's value than on routes and flags, since detainment is almost always a political act aimed at the state of the flag or of the owner.
On July 19, 2019, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz. Released on September 27, 2019, after a little over two months, it stayed far short of the twelve-month threshold: the loss of earnings, however, was already incurred.
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