Captain Raman Kapoor was loading oil at an Iraqi port when word reached him that the United States and Iran were at war.

Within hours, his tanker was trapped north of the Strait of Hormuz with 24 crew members aboard, as missiles began arcing across the sky overhead.

“We were stuck inside the war zone and everyone was so scared and clueless about what to do,” Kapoor, 48, recalled. “We all felt so trapped. We were helpless, totally helpless.”

He and his crew would stay that way for 75 days.

The Strait of Hormuz – a narrow channel through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passed pre-conflict – is now expected to partially reopen on Friday under a 60-day US-Iran memorandum of understanding, raising hopes that commercial shipping can resume.

For the civilian seafarers caught inside the crisis since the US-Israel war on Iran began in late February, that is cause for cautious relief.