Posted on 08/12/2009 2:14:01 AM PDT by Jonny foreigner
A search is under way for a cargo ship which may have travelled through the English Channel after apparently being hijacked by pirates.
Coastguards fear the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, carrying 15 Russian crew, was hijacked in the Baltic sea.
UK authorities made contact before it entered the Strait of Dover but the Russian navy told the Itar-Tass agency it was now looking for the ship.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the situation was "bizarre".
Spokesman Mark Clark said: "Who would think that a hijacked ship could pass through one of the most policed and concentrated waters in the world?
"It seems strange to think that a ship which had been hijacked was passing along the channel along with ships carrying day-trippers going over to Calais for the day."
'Extremely curious'
Hijackers may have been coercing the ship's crew when they made radio contact with coastguards at Dover on 28 July, the MCA fears.
Reports say Swedish authorities were told by the Finnish shipping line operating the 3,988-tonne cargo ship that it was boarded by up to 10 armed men claiming to be anti-drugs police as it sailed through the Baltic sea on July 24. The intruders apparently left the vessel - which was carrying about £1m worth of sawn timber from Finland to Algeria - 12 hours later on an inflatable boat after damaging the Arctic Sea's communications equipment.
But on 3 August, Interpol told Dover Coastguard that the crew had been hijacked in the Baltic Sea and asked UK authorities to be alert as the vessel passed through the channel.
By then the ship had already left the Strait of Dover and was last recorded off the coast of Brest, northern France, just before 0130 BST on 30 July.
The MCA said it was told the vessel...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
with a name like that it must be of ice breaker class and a rather small <400 foot breakbulker
to hijack a freighter with only 2M dollars in timber sounds a bit odd too
Russian criminals maybe or insurance scam?
here is an update if you are interested.
Russian navy joins hunt for ship (including submarines)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8197248.stm
btw. this story is getting stranger every hour because why would russia use even their nuclear submarines to hunt down a low worth cargo ship. what to hell is on bord on this ship? timber? well i´m starting to think that i don´t believe that Timber is the only cargo.
where are the ship’s owners, cargo owners and insurers in all this?
radio contact from time to time via satphone or ship-shore is pretty common...even back in my day
we would get a patch through from Azores or Bermuda when crossing the pond or a big tanker with up to the minute comm gear would relay ship’s progress to me via satfax if they passed within VHF range as a courtesy
ship shore calls then were about 10 bucks a minute..this ship is about the same DWT as one of mine but newer...nice gear on her in that pic....3 holds and hatches with her fore and aft Macgregors partially opened while underway...a dryout I guess
maybe they wanted the ship...she’s only 17 years old...keeping Brit Lloyds and Russian class which in the case of the former ain’t cheap
Finnish built too I think...a fine ship I’d wager...worth a multiple of that cargo but with all this publicity unless she’s scuttled or broken up at some third world steel breakerage I’d wager she’s found
yeah but I’m gonna guess this is a 8-10 million dollar ship if she is Finnish built which I believe she is...well geared and looks like she’s been kept up and classed well
that is a lot to jettison over an arms deal
Exactly. What kind of rocket surgeon criminals hijack a boat load of lumber?
Well...we’ll see where she turns up. Maybe Guajira, maybe Nica, maybe Venezuela.
I think that may speak to what its all about.
They found it off the Cape Verde islands..see my recent link...up the thread.
strange...a scam maybe
or maybe it wasn’t carrying timber at all! seems like a crazy place to hijack a ship, in english waters like. Not exactly the spanish main is it?
but very bad luck to rename a ship
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