Mystery of the Lyubov Orlova: Ghost ship full of
cannibal rats ‘could be heading for British coast’
ADAM WITHNALL Thursday 23 January 2014 / http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mystery-of-the-lyubov-orlova-ghost-ship-full-of-cannibal-rats-could-be-heading-for-british-coast-9080103.html
A ghost ship carrying nothing but disease-ridden rats could
be about to make land on Britain’s shore, experts have warned.
The infamous Lyubov Orlova cruise liner has been drifting
across the north Atlantic for the better part of a year, and salvage hunters
say there is a strong chance it is heading this way.
Built in Yugoslavia in 1976, the unlucky vessel was
abandoned in a Canadian harbour after its owners were embroiled in a debt
scandal and failed to pay the crew.
The authorities in Newfoundland tried to sell the hull for
scrap – valued at £600,000 – to the Dominican Republic, but cut their losses
when it came loose in a storm on the way.
Sending the ship off into international waters, Transport
Canada said it was satisfied the Lyubov Orlova “no longer poses a threat to the
safety of [Canadian] offshore oil installations, their personnel or the marine
environment”.
Experts say the ship, which is likely to still contain
hundreds of rats that have been eating each other to survive, must still be out
there somewhere because not all of its lifeboat emergency beacons have been set
off.
Two signals were picked up on the 12 and 23 March last year,
presumably from lifeboats which fell away and hit the water, showing the vessel
had made it two-thirds of the way across the Atlantic and was heading east.
A week later, an unidentified object of about the right size
was spotted on radar just off the coast of Scotland – but search planes never
verified the find.
Pim de Rhoodes, a Belgian salvage hunter who is among a
number looking for the Lyubov Orlova off the UK coastline, told The Sun: “She
is floating around out there somewhere.
“There will be a lot of rats and they eat each other. If I
get aboard I'll have to lace everywhere with poison.”
The head of the Irish coastguard, Chris Reynolds, said the
ship was more likely than not to still pose a threat.
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Adrift: The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is
keeping tabs on the empty MV Lyubov Orlova, but it may be lost at sea forever
Russian ghost cruise ship which vanished in the mists
off Newfoundland two months ago and has now reappeared half way across the
Atlantic
The MV Lyubov Orlova
vanished en route to the Dominican Republic
Set sail from Canada
bound for Caribbean where it was to be scrapped
Empty vessel has
reappeared near the west coast of Ireland
Sighting of the ship
reported by U.S. intelligence agency
By KERRY MCDERMOTT
PUBLISHED: 13:24 GMT, 22 February 2013 /
 |
All at sea: The ship was being towed to the Dominican Republic
to be scrapped when it broke free
When this empty Russian cruise ship disappeared into the
mist en route to the Caribbean, it was thought the abandoned vessel could be
lost to the ocean forever.
But after spending almost two months adrift the ghostly
liner is reported to have re-emerged near Ireland's west coast - thousands of
miles from its intended destination.
The MV Lyubov Orlova - named after a famous Soviet actress -
was being towed to the Dominican Republic to be scrapped when the cable pulling
it snapped, leaving the Orlova to slip away as the crew on board the towing
ship battled howling winds and 10ft waves to try in vain to reconnect the line.
The stranded liner, which had left Canadian shores on
January 23, was later secured by the supply vessel Atlantic Hawk, but the ship
drifted loose a second time, according to a report on the PhysOrg website
Maritime authorities in Canada could not pinpoint the
location of the ship, which has no warning lights and a broken global
positioning system.
But now a U.S. intelligence agency has reported that the
Orlova was sighted 1,300 nautical miles from Ireland's west coast.
Canada's transport authority has said the abandoned ship is
no longer its concern as the vessel has left the country's waters, with
officials insisting the owner of the Orlova is responsible for its movements.
A document from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
states that the Lyubov Orlova was spotted at the co-ordinates 49-22.70N and
044-51.34W, or roughly 1,300
miles from the Irish coast.
The agency analyses satellite imagery and uses the results
to create detailed maps for the U.S. government.
The empty liner is understood to be slowly drifting towards
the European coastline.
Now home only to rats, the 1976-built ship once carried
passengers on Antarctic cruises.
The ship was seized by authorities in Newfoundland in 2010
amid spiralling debts owed to charter firm Cruise North Expeditions after
faults on board meant a scheduled cruise had to be cancelled.
She is understood to have been sold to Neptune International
Shipping in February last year to be broken up.
Ghost riders: An unmanned Russian ship full of rats is
adrift in the Atlantic - so, just how many other vagrant vessels are out there?
SAMUEL MUSTON /
Thursday 23 January 2014 / http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ghost-riders-an-unmanned-russian-ship-full-of-rats-is-adrift-in-the-atlantic--so-just-how-many-other-vagrant-vessels-are-out-there-9081509.html
In happier times, the MV Lyubov Orlova was a pleasure ship,
a cruiser accustomed to taking well-heeled Russian holidaymakers on adventure
tours around the Arctic. Today, that same 295ft ship is bobbing somewhere off
the coast of Ireland, its only passengers a horde of disease-ridden rats.
The trouble for the ship began last February. Set for the
breakers yard, it was being towed from Canada to the Dominican Republic by an
American-owned tug. A day into the journey, however, the line between the
vessels broke. The tug tried to reconnect it, but was hampered by 35mph winds.
It withdrew and the Orlova was left crewless and adrift.
The Canadian authorities, worried that the ship might
collide with its offshore oil wells, sent another, larger boat that caught hold
of the stricken vessel. It did not take it to port, however. Instead, it towed
the Orlova beyond Canadian waters and let it drift out to sea.
Its lonely journey has now run to 12 months and as many as
2,000 nautical miles. The ship, having crossed the Atlantic, is now supposedly
on Ireland's doorstep. Unsurprisingly, the Irish Coast Guard is unenthusiastic
about the situation. "We don't want rats from foreign ships coming on to
Irish soil," the director of the Irish maritime agency told the Irish
Independent.
There is not a great deal that can be done to prevent the
rats from establishing a beachhead, however, given that the ship has no
location-finding devices on board and no one knows where it is exactly. As
Gemma Wilkie, a spokesman for the British Chamber of Shipping points out, the
situation is about as uncertain as it gets. "Clearly, the coastguard
involved was vigilant in carrying out a search in response to the radar results
showing an object of similar size off the Scottish coast – although as yet
there has been no confirmed sighting of the ship in UK waters," she says.
Although the maritime authorities do not welcome such
floating hazards, they are relatively sanguine about them. As John Murray, the
maritime director of the International Chamber of Shipping, says, the chance of
a collision with another ship is low. "Shipping containers and adrift
crafts don't creep up on ships," he says. "Navigation warnings from
other vessels and radar usually ensure they are spotted from quite a distance
away. Ships navigate around them."
Still, though, the notion of a phantom vessel, disconnected
from the world, is discomfiting. The most famous example is, of course, the
Mary Celeste, the 100ft brigantine which was found floating, crewless but
well-provisioned, in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872. Alas, though, the "ghost
ship" is not a phenomena confined to the history textbook.
In June last year, the 69ft Nina, heading to Sydney from New
Zealand, was caught in a storm. A text sent by the crew soon after indicated
that they had survived unscathed. A search of nearly 500,000 square nautical
miles has failed to find the vessel, however. A grainy image, which some have
suggested may be the ship, was taken off the coast of New Zealand. It has not
been seen since. The family of those on board have financed a private rescue
but to little avail.
A Japanese fishing boat, the Ryou-Un Maru, also spent 11
months at sea without a crew. After slipping its moorings in March 2011 during
the Tohoku earthquake, it drifted into US waters in April 2012. As it had been
assumed sunk by the Japanese authorities, its registration had been cancelled
and legally it no longer had an owner. The Americans took a pragmatic approach
and sunk it in the Gulf of Alaska.
In some cases, though, when a small ship is being towed for
scrap, breaks loose and cannot be caught, it is simply not reported and becomes
an unquantified hazard for the shipping industry. Pleasure-boat cruisers and
cross-channel ferrygoers need not worry unduly then. As Murray makes clear,
such incidents are rare: "It would be inaccurate to think that ships are
navigating through a thicket of abandoned boats."
Phantom ships are certainly an eerie spectacle but the
chances, for most of us, of ever being visited by a ghost ship are slim to none.
"Made a little walk around the MV Lyubov orlova on the way to
Antarctica. At the moment it is drifting around the North Atlantic. Abandoned
with only rats as passengers."
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