The Genco Picardy is not an American ship. It doesn't pay U.S. taxes, none of its crew are U.S. nationals, and when it sailed through the Red Sea last month, it wasn't carrying cargo to or from an American port. But when the Houthis, a tribal militant group from Yemen, attacked the ship, the crew called the U.S. Navy. That same day, the Navy fired missiles at Houthi sites. On today's show: How did protecting the safe passage of other countries' ships in the Red Sea become a job for the U.S. military? It goes back to an idea called Freedom of the Seas, an idea that started out as an abstract pipe dream when it was coined in the early 1600s – but has become a pillar of the global economy. This episode was hosted by Alex Mayyasi and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, edited by Molly Messick, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez, with help from Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
This message comes from wondery.
Every great romance story has a happily ever after.
Two people meet, fall in love and end up together for the rest of their days.
This isn't one of those stories.
Binge all episodes of happily never after.
Dan and Nancy ad free right now on wondery.
This is Planet Money from NPR.
Maybe the worst possible call you can get if you run a big global shipping company would go something like this.
Unfortunately, the Picardy has been attacked.
There is a fire on board, and I will ring you back after I have more details.
John Woven Smith got exactly that call last month.
The Picardy is a cargo ship owned by John's company, Jenco.
And it was in one of the most dangerous places for a ship to be right now.
Off the coast of yemenite, where a militant group called the Houthis has been attacking ships for months now to protest Israel's war in Gaza.
They say for weeks before the Bacardi was attacked, John had been preparing to get the ship out of the Red Sea.
Right.
And so before the ship started its journey, they made a plan.
The Picardy would turn off its tracking signal.
John would get a status update from the captain every 30 minutes.
They doubled their security detail to six ex military people with rifles.