On June 5, 1967, as Israel launched preemptive airstrikes against Egyptian airfields opening the Six-Day War, Egypt sank vessels in the Suez Canal to prevent its use, closing one of the world's most important shipping arteries. The closure rerouted global oil traffic around Africa's Cape of Horn, and the canal remained blocked until 1975, its banks littered with wrecks and mines from the fighting.
The Suez Canal had already been a flashpoint of Cold War-era geopolitics, seized by Egypt from Anglo-French control in 1956. When war erupted again in June 1967, fifteen ships from eight nations found themselves trapped mid-transit in the Great Bitter Lake, unable to move forward or back as fighting raged along both banks. These vessels, later nicknamed the 'Yellow Fleet' for the desert dust that coated them, remained stranded there for eight years.
The crews organized their own floating society, complete with a 'Great Bitter Lake Association,' printing their own currency and stamps, and holding olympic-style competitions between ships. Some crew members were rotated out and replaced over the years; a few ships never sailed again and were scrapped in place.
The canal's closure forced a fundamental restructuring of global shipping, accelerating the rise of supertankers designed to sail profitably around Africa rather than through the canal at all—a shift in vessel design that persisted long after the canal reopened in 1975.