PWSTS Forum for Old Boys, Family and Friends

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: Mystery of the Russian crewed ship Arctic Sea.....where is it?


PWSTS Forum Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 2064
Date:
Mystery of the Russian crewed ship Arctic Sea.....where is it?
Permalink  
 


Secret cargo theory in hunt for missing Arctic Sea

Kaliningrad

Russian maritime bulletin editor raises possibility that alternative cargo was loaded in Kaliningrad

FIRST POSTED AUGUST 14, 2009

Was the Arctic Sea, the Russian-crewed 4,000-tonne cargo ship that disappeared on July 29, carrying a secret cargo? It's a theory gaining ground as observers seek an answer to the mystery of the missing vessel which, despite a search mounted in the Atlantic by the Russian navy, has still not been found.

The Arctic Sea was on a journey from the Finnish port of Pietarsaar to Bejaia on the Mediterranean coast of Algeria, where it was due to dock on August 4. It had passed through the English Channel and was reckoned to be off the coast of France when it was least heard from.

The most logical explanations for its disappearance are that it ran into trouble and sank, or that it was hijacked. But if it sank, its £1m cargo of timber would have risen to the surface, and there have been no sightings. If it was hijacked, why has no demand been received?

"The only sensible answer is that the vessel was loaded secretly with something we don't know anything about," Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the Russian maritime bulletin Sovfracht told the Russia Today news channel.

"We have to remember that before loading in Finland the vessel stayed for two weeks in a shipyard in Kaliningrad (above). I'm sure it cannot be drugs or illegal criminal cargo. I think it is something much more expensive and dangerous."

Another puzzle that still has no explanation is the report from the Arctic Sea, received on July 24, four days before it was last heard from, that a gang of 10 men pretending to be anti-drugs police boarded the vessel in Swedish waters. According to Interpol, the men reportedly stayed aboard the Arctic Sea for 12 hours before leaving in a high-speed inflatable boat.

As Russian navy ships and submarines search for the Arctic Sea, Nikolay Karpenkov, director of Solchart Arkhanglesk, the vessel's operating company, dismissed as "rubbish" the notion of a secret cargo. "The craft was checked by customs officers as it left Kaliningrad after a refit and with the timber cargo in Finland and nothing out of the ordinary was found," he said. darkerbullet.gif



__________________


PWSTS UK Director

Status: Offline
Posts: 2133
Date:
Permalink  
 



__________________


PWSTS UK Director

Status: Offline
Posts: 2133
Date:
Permalink  
 

Who needs wood probably the Swedes as Ikea uses loads 
 

On a serious note this story should pan out to be interesting



__________________


PWSTS Forum Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 2064
Date:
Permalink  
 

Missing ship 'found' off Africa

The Arctic Sea (file image)
The Arctic Sea went missing in mysterious circumstances last month

A missing merchant ship with 15 Russian crew members on board has been spotted off the coast of West Africa, unconfirmed reports say.

The Arctic Sea had last been sighted in the Bay of Biscay on 30 July.

Reports citing coastguards suggested it had been seen some 400 nautical miles north of the Cape Verde islands.

However amid continuing uncertainty, the Russian envoy in Cape Verde said he had contacted the military there and the sighting had not been confirmed.

Russian navy ships have been searching for the 4,000-tonne Maltese-flagged vessel, which had been carrying timber.

Observers have suggested the ship was hijacked, possibly because of a Russian commercial dispute.

 

Following the reported sighting, a spokesman for the French defence ministry told the BBC that the Arctic Sea was thought to be in international waters.

The spokesman said his information came from the Cape Verde coastguard, who said the ship was outside its jurisdiction.

 

o.gif
start_quote_rb.gifIt would seem that these acts, such as they have been reported, have nothing in common with 'traditional' acts of piracy or armed robbery at sea. end_quote_rb.gif
Martin Selmayr
EU Commission
inline_dashed_line.gif

However, the spokesman said there was a "high possibility" that the ship had been located. French intelligence officials also believe they have found the ship in the same area, he said.

The Russian ambassador to Cape Verde, Alexander Karpushin, told Associated Press news agency that a Russian frigate was heading to the area but had no information on the Arctic Sea's location.

Russia's RIA news agency later quoted Mr Karpushin as saying that confirmation that the Arctic Sea had been spotted "400 nautical miles north of the island of Santo Antao... did not prove to be true".

Five Russian warships and other vessels have been searching the Atlantic for the vessel.

Attack reports

Carrying timber reportedly worth $1.8m (£1.1m), the Arctic Sea sailed from Finland and had been scheduled to dock in the Algerian port of Bejaia on 4 August.

The crew reported being boarded by up to 10 armed men as the ship sailed through the Baltic Sea on 24 July, but the intruders were reported to have left the vessel on an inflatable boat after 12 hours.

There are also reports of the ship being attacked a second time off the Portuguese coast. However the ship's operators said they had no knowledge of the incident and Portugal said the ship was never in its territorial waters.

The last known contact with the crew was when the Arctic Sea reported to British maritime authorities as it passed through the Dover Strait.

On Friday, the European Union Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr said: "From information currently available it would seem that these acts, such as they have been reported, have nothing in common with 'traditional' acts of piracy or armed robbery at sea."

Nato was monitoring the situation due to the unusual nature and location of the attacks, but was not directly involved in the search.

Journey of the Arctic Sea

The Arctic Sea (file image)
The Arctic Sea went missing in mysterious circumstances last month

 


According to the above BBC reports the Arctic Sea is now heading towards the West Coast of Africa and is believed to be off the coast of the Cape Verde Islands. The mystery thickens.

As for who would want a pile of wood...apart from house builders, how about tooth pick manufacturers, match stick manufacturers. Other uses, rifle stocks, folk building Arks for the climate change. Green Folk planning to reconstruct trees in the Sahara. Any other ideas?  Anyone prepared to forecast how this little mystery will end up ?  Stu


-- Edited by stuhogg on Saturday 15th of August 2009 01:39:51 AM

__________________


PWSTS Forum Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 704
Date:
Permalink  
 

I THINK ITS AN INSURANCE SCAM OF SOME SORT? IT WILL ALL COME OUT IN THE DOBY. RGDS TERRY

__________________

well holystone me!!! 



PWSTS Forum Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 2064
Date:
Permalink  
 

This gets more and more mysterious by the day. Last night we heard the ships owners had received a ranson demand for money.  And in the meantime the Russian navy is bearing down on the ship, or so we are told.

The ship is owned by Solchart Management of Finland, its registered in Malta and has a Russian crew.  The nationalities of the pirates/hijackers is unknown although they spoke English. All this over a cargo of construction timber worth just about a million quid. Hardly seems worth all the effort when compared with the recent jewel robbery. Stu


__________________


PWSTS Forum Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 2064
Date:
Permalink  
 

So what happens now? This from the Washington Post. The final words are that the operation cost more than the combined value of the ship and its cargo. Strange, eh? Stu


Russia Detains 8 in Hijacking of Ship

Analysts Question Official Story on Ship That Vanished in July

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

MOSCOW, Aug. 18 -- Russia said Tuesday that it has detained eight suspected hijackers aboard the cargo ship that went missing near the English Channel this month, but it offered few details to explain the maritime mystery that has captivated Europe for weeks.

This Story

A day after the Russian navy intercepted the Maltese-flagged freighter Arctic Sea about 300 miles off Cape Verde, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said hijackers had seized control of the ship in Swedish waters on July 24 and forced its Russian crew at gunpoint to sail toward Africa.

"This was an act of piracy," he told reporters.

The statement was the first official confirmation that the ship had been hijacked. But Russian authorities said nothing about why anyone would seize an aging vessel carrying timber and declined to address glaring inconsistencies in accounts of the incident.

No ship has been hijacked in the Baltic Sea in several centuries, according to Swedish officials, and some security and maritime analysts said the sophistication of the operation pointed to state involvement and secret cargo, possibly nuclear material.

Finnish officials have confirmed that firefighters took the unusual step of conducting radiation tests on the Arctic Sea before it left Pietarsaari, in western Finland, in late July. The results were negative.

The freighter, operated by a Finnish company with Russian management, was scheduled to deliver a shipment of timber valued at $1.8 million to the Algerian port of Bejaia on Aug. 4.

But on July 28, Swedish police received a report that masked, uniformed men identifying themselves as drug enforcement agents had boarded the ship, assaulted and tied up the 15 crew members, and searched the vessel for half a day before letting them go, said Linda Widmark, press secretary for the Swedish National Police Board. The suspects reportedly arrived and departed in a high-speed inflatable dinghy marked "Police."

Widmark said the crew contacted the shipping company by e-mail after the alleged incident July 24, and the company informed the Russian Embassy in Finland, which reported it to Swedish police through diplomatic channels. Working with the company, Swedish police collected written statements from crew members, as well as photos showing their injuries, she said.

There was no sign of trouble when the freighter communicated with British authorities as it passed through the Dover Strait on July 28. Everything seemed fine July 31, too, when Swedish police spoke by phone with a man identifying himself as the captain, Widmark said.

But then the authorities lost contact with the freighter, prompting a two-week international search. Russia requested help from NATO last week, and the alliance shared data from a tracking system it uses to monitor ship movements, a NATO spokesman said. Meanwhile, Finnish police said the shipping company had reported receiving a ransom demand.

Serdyukov identified the suspected hijackers only by nationality -- two Russians, two Estonians and four Latvians -- and said they were being questioned aboard the naval frigate that intercepted the Arctic Sea. Naval forces freed the crew and apprehended the suspects without firing a shot, he said.

He said the hijackers had ordered the crew members to shut off the ship's communications and navigation equipment. But it was unclear whether the hijackers had ever left the ship and, if not, why they would have allowed the crew to report the July 24 boarding and search.

Mikhail Voitenko, a maritime security consultant and journalist who has been helping relatives of the crew members, said that the official version was full of holes and that the crime was beyond the means of ordinary pirates. Only "commandos" could pull off a hijacking in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, within cellphone range, he argued, adding, "The operation cost more than the cargo and ship combined."

 



__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.

Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard