About that "British" tanker "captured" recently by Iran....

[TreasonousBastard]

4. It's complicated. Someone can physically own a vessel, but then it can be...

voyage chartered, bareboat chartered, time chartered, sold while on the high seas, and flagged out to another country with more interesting regulations or taxes. There have even been cases of sailors hanging on ropes to change the name of the ship while at sea.

Last I looked, Exxon/Mobil had the largest fleet in the world, but you wouldn't know it from looking at the list of vessels. All but maybe a couple of dozen are owned by foreign corporations and flagged out to Liberia, or some other flag of convenience.

If this one was flying a British flag, it's a British ship.