Suezkanal-Sperrung (1967–1975)

The Suez Canal closure of 1967–1975 turned a sudden consequence of war into a prolonged commercial and political impasse for the von Dohren shipping company. One of its eleven ships was trapped in the canal, where the stranded vessels—soon known as the Yellow Fleet—remained for years, costing the firm enormous sums and leaving the duration of the crisis uncertain.

Closure and Background

In 1967, Egypt closed the Suez Canal in response to the Six-Day War. Ships that happened to be inside the canal when it was shut could not leave, and one of the eleven vessels in the von Dohren fleet was among those caught there. What had initially seemed like an absurd twist of world events became a lasting burden: by the time the narrative describes it, the ships had been stuck for seven years.

The Yellow Fleet

The name Yellow Fleet came from the fine, yellow-shimmering desert sand that the wind carried onto the ships’ decks. The image makes the vessels’ immobility visible: ships intended for movement lay exposed to the desert, their decks gradually covered while the political circumstances governing their fate remained beyond the company’s control.

Cost and Uncertainty

The stranded ship cost the company immense sums, adding to the pressures already facing the von Dohren fleet. The closure is presented not as a brief interruption with a foreseeable end, but as a crisis whose duration nobody dared predict. Its consequences therefore accumulated over time, turning an unexpected geopolitical event into one of the company’s continuing financial burdens.