Cargo ship vanishes near England

[willmarsh3]

Possible piracy.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/08/12/pirates.europe/index.html

Hopefully they find it and there is nothing serious.

[TimH]

Ill bet it was Ikea. :)

[Oyvind Snibsoer]

Strange. There's quite a lot more information about this mystery in Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat's int'l edition: http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Where+are+you+iArctic+Seai+/1135248398283

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14224938&PageNum=0

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/piracy/6016534/Hijacked-Arctic-Sea-feared-to-be-carrying-secret-cargo-of-drugs.html

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

The ship was "supposed to be hijacked" while still at Baltic Sea. Now the mysteries seem to continue :confused:

[peter radclyffe]

the somalis know the value of timber

[willmarsh3]

It got more coverage on NPR yesterday morning and evening in the States. The nature of this seems a bit bizarre.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

The ship whilst registered in Malta appears to be Russian owned.

Nuff said.

[Oyvind Snibsoer]

BBC reports that the missing ship has been sighted off the Cape Verde islands: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8202308.stm

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

Seems like the boat was hijacked for ransom after all.

Finnish, Swedish and Maltese police are investigating the case.

[rbgarr]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/15/world/AP-EU-Missing-Ship.html

[skuthorp]

I can think of many uses that a pirated freighter could be put too, and I'll bet I'm not the only one. Let's hope this is being taken seriously.

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

Finnish police is reporting that a demand for ransom has been received and they are investigating the case.

They don´t want to comment any of the information about the boats whereabouts because they are worried over the safety of the crew.

http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/08/ransom_demand_for_missing_ship_930430.html

[heimlaga]

The case is covered thoroghly by Vasabladet, which is our local newspaper. I live less than 100 kilometres from Jakobstad (=Pietarsaari) and hear plenty of loose rumours of cause.

Some speculate that military contraband could have been smuggled onboard in Kaliningrad without the crew knowing it. Then the ship was seized as soon as it got on it's way. This way there was no one aboard knowing what was hidden when the ship cleared through customs.

Now everything is just speculations so we can do nothing but wait for the truth to be found out. No reson to make up theories in my oppinion.

[MiddleAgesMan]

Yep--military contraband; translation--nuclear weapon(s).

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Steady on a minute!

The ship loaded timber in Finland.

Finnish sevedores are extremely efficient - trust me, I know.

There would have been nowhere left to put anything else in the holds and in any event the deck cargo would obstruct the hatches.

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

They did some "reparations" in Kaliningrad before coming to Finland.

An extra bulkhead in the hold?

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

More reading

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8203210.stm

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

They did some "reparations" in Kaliningrad before coming to Finland.

An extra bulkhead in the hold?

Looking at the Equasis:

http://www.equasis.org/EquasisWeb/public/HomePage

file for this ship , I am not surprised she needed repairs before entering Finnish waters. But a false bulkhead is immediately obvious to anyone and certainly to stevedores who have to calculate hold dimensions and volumes when planning stowage.

[heimlaga]

According to Vasabladet the ship har been found and boarded by the Russian navy found off Cape Verde Islands.

http://www.vasabladet.fi/story.aspx?linkID=81096&storyID=46663

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

Russian minister of defence has given a statement that the ship has been found and that the crew is onboard a russian navy vessel.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE57G36320090817

[willmarsh3]

Glad to see things turned out ok. 8 arrested.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32457913/ns/world_news-europe/

[John Turpin]

Where do you think I got my recent plywood shipment from? Heh heh heh. This was all part of my plan.

[mmd]

Our local media reported that the ship, "loaded with two million dollars worth of Finnish lumber..."

If this dollar value is true, that would place the hijacking of this ship right up there with stealing a pick-up truck full of sand, value-wise. WTF? Who did this hijack - the Keystone Kops?

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

The value is true, 1.3million euros. Rest assured it was not the cargo nor the ransom that was the reason. Speculation goes high both here in Finland and in Russia.

Looking at the high profile publicity, I wouldn´t be surprised if the highjackers were "Russian SEALS" who in turn were "captured" by Russian navy just to show the world how effective their military is. :D

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

Now the rumor says that, according to pictures, Arctic Sea was drawing a lot more than she should have concidering the cargo (wood) she was officially carrying,

[marcin]

Speculation on this side of the pond is that she was actually carrying SS-300 (sic!) AA/AM missiles bound for Iran from Russia under cover of wood for Algeria, and was reportedly boarded by special forces, likely Israeli, as Israel was said to be negotiating the NON-sale of these missiles to Iran.

Iran supposedly needed these to protect their nuclear installations from an expected Israeli attack (remember Osirak in Iraq in the 1980's?). Apparently by September they will have enough bomb-grade material to make it go kablooey.

The reporter who wrote this story said that it sounded far fetched to him too, except that it was sold to him by an ex-Mossad agent and that, although incredible, it fit all the facts.

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

An update:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6823300.ece

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00602/Arctic_Sea_602263a.jpg

[Concordia...41]

An update:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6823300.ece



Very interesting. Thanks! It's probably safe to say that there's even more to the 'rest of the story.'

G'day ;)

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

I think this is one of those cases when it is safe to say that:

"We will probably never know what really happened, but whatever it is, it is definitely not what we have been told" :D

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Did she call at Kaliningrad before or after she called in Finland?

If before, surely the Finnish stevedores and the charterers agents must have noticed that the holds contained packing cases and the "full reach and burthen of the vessel" was not, contrary to standard charter party terms, available to stow the timber?

If after, was the timber deck cargo back discharged and reloaded in order to get the packing cases into the holds?

Someone must know.

[zertgold]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6823300.eceRead the times version. They speak of Israeli Elite forces attacking the Russian ship because the delivery of nuclear weapons is going to one of those nations that has lots of oil money, but no brains to build there own. The arrested "pirates" claim that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and did not attack any freighter.

The International Maritime Bureau in London, which tracks piracy worldwide, said it did not believe the Arctic Sea had fallen into the hands of pirates.

[Timo_N62.9_E27.7]

Did she call at Kaliningrad before or after she called in Finland?


First Kaliningrad then Finland.

But how big are those missiles? Could they be hidden someplace else than the cargo hold?

[peter radclyffe]

in der vodka barrels

[Oyvind Snibsoer]

That would be quite a large barrel

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/MoscowParade2009_7.jpg

Besides, having just the missiles would probably be pretty useless unless you also have the radar trucks and command post that typically are part of such a system. Methinks there wouldn't be very much room for any timber at all on board that ship...

Of course, it could be that Iran only needed one or two missiles for their own technicians to dissect so they could start making their own version?

This seems to be the complete system:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/S-300PMU2_complex.jpg/800px-S-300PMU2_complex.jpg

[Oyvind Snibsoer]

Oh, and something else that doesn't make sense: Russia actually signed a deal a few years ago to sell S-300 missiles to Iran, but Israel seems to have succesfully blocked the delivery so far, using diplomatic channels.

Israeli POV: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418644694&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Iranian POV: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=91543&sectionid=351020101