Posted on 02/18/2020 3:29:38 PM PST by aMorePerfectUnion
An abandoned cargo ship has landed on the coast of Ireland after spending more than a year drifting alone at sea.
The Irish Coast Guard said it responded to the vessel aground near Ballycotton, Cork on Sunday and discovered there was no one was on board.
It turns out that the mysterious vessel is the 250-foot Tanzanian-flagged merchant ship Alta, which had been adrift since the U.S. Coast Guard rescued all 10 crew members on board after the vessel lost power while en route from Greece to Haiti in September 2018.
At the time of the rescue, the U.S. Coast Guard said it had been working with the ship's owner to arrange for a commercial tug to tow the vessel to shore. Apparently, the tow never came to fruition and the vessel has been floating solo ever since.
One year later, in September 2019, the U.K. Royal Navy’s Ice Patrol Ship HMS Protector spotted Alta adrift in the mid-Atlantic, but its attempts to make contact and offer assistance went unanswered.
It's believed Alta made its way near Africa, the Americas and Europe before finally being pushed ashore by Storm Dennis earlier this week.
The Irish Coastguard, Cork County Council, the Receiver of Wrecks and other relevant bodies are now working to develop a plan to remove the wreck.
There has been no visible pollution near the grounded vessel, Cork County Council said in seperate statements on Monday and Tuesday.
An initial assessment the Council’s marine contractor on Tuesday found there is no cargo on board and that only a small amount of diesel fuel remains in the ship's tanks, which are divided into a number of compartments. Several of the compartments are inaccessible due to water on board and will be pumped out on Wednesday to allow the contractor to complete the assessment.
Officials are also evaluating plans to remove a number of sealed oil containers and other materials found on board which may pose a pollution risk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAqIEyYTuOI&feature=emb_logo
Is their a guy in the hold named Renfroe that is hugging really tight to a coffin-like box and laughing very weirdly?
If so, push them back out to sea.
Pretty cool looking vessel.
Too bad they cost so much to operate...
That is a novel use of the word solo. If ships normally traveled in groups then solo would be apt but since they don’t usually go around in groups I would not use that word. Derelict, adrift, unmanned, unmoored, even rudderless. With the internet everyone is a writer but there aren’t any editors.
It must show where the scrap steel market is, if its not even worth towing it to some breaker yard in Africa or Asia to be sold for scrap.
Nice!
Drag it back out to sea and use it for target practice.
Well, it's aground. Mission accomplished.
“...there is no cargo on board ...”
Why would an empty cargo ship be going from Tanzania to Haiti?
Good point.
Oops...Greece to Haiti. Still same question.
Use it for target practice in an area suitable for an artificial reef.
The Killer Whales are going all over the place, and now they’re finding empty ships.
This looks like a simple Cause And Effect thing.
They don’t call them Good Buddy Whales or Help A Guy Out Whales.
Killer Whales.
Ships with nobody on them.
I say we bring the Killer Whales in and give them a polygraph.
“Have you been killing the people on the boats? Oh, the needle jumped on that one!”
Nice graphic!
I like the schooner.
Some shows....you never forget.....
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