Sailing tales of strange ships roaming the waters with no one onboard have been recounted and retold for generations, inspiring both dread and excitement.
There has never been a shortage of scary sea legends in our world, from flying ghost ships to mysterious disappearances to vessels staffed by corpses. However, real deserted ships have frequently been discovered on the open ocean, floating aimlessly with no crew or warning lights, which means they can be quite dangerous for other vessels, especially at night.
One would think that with all of the technical advances, including GPS systems that have transformed boating, it would be impossible for a ship to just vanish, but the case of the MV Lyubov Orlova, a Russian cruise ship, proves that assumption incorrect. After breaking free from a tugboat in January 2013, this vessel, apparently loaded with cannibalistic rats, has been floating over the North Atlantic for quite some time.
The narrative of Lyubov Orlova, named after a famous Soviet actress, began in 1976 when the boat was built in Yugoslavia for a Soviet-based corporation and used mostly for Antarctic missions. However, she was confiscated by Canadian authorities in St. John’s Harbor, Newfoundland, after it was discovered that her owners were implicated in a debt crisis.
According to the Independent, the hull was supposed to be sold for scrap to the Dominican Republic, but it sprang free in a storm on the way and has been floating in international seas since. The government agency in charge of most transportation rules in Canada, Transport Canada, stated that the Lyubov Orlova “no longer poses a threat to the safety of [Canadian] offshore oil facilities, their crew, or the maritime environment.”
Various experts have characterized the ship as unsafe, with some arguing that an accidental release of harmful substances and the vessel’s non-biodegradable floating garbage might have a terrible impact on the ecosystem. Others, such Irish Coast Guard Director Chris Reynolds, think there are hundreds of disease-ridden rats on board, which he considers to be a biohazard. “We do not want rats from foreign ships to enter Irish territory.” “I’m sure locals would be upset if it came and broke up on shore,” Mr. Reynolds told the Irish Independent.
The Lyubov Orlova was supposedly detected by the Atlantic Hawk, an offshore tug/supply ship that successfully seized control of the drifting ship, but Transport Canada subsequently ordered it to be released because it was in international seas. “The vessel has drifted into foreign seas,” the federal department stated in a statement. “Given current patterns and prevalent winds, it is extremely improbable that the vessel will re-enter waters within Canadian jurisdiction.”
In March 2013, the Irish Coastguard received a signal from the former Arctic cruise ship after two lifeboats reportedly fell off and triggered warning signals from the ship’s emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB), indicating that the Lyubov Orlova was heading east and was approximately 700 miles off the coast of Ireland.
According to the Irish Examiner, the EPIRB is a device meant to warn Search and Rescue authorities in the case of an emergency, and it only signals when it touches the water, leading officials to believe that the ship had most likely sunk. According to a coast guard spokesperson, a satellite was dispatched over the position of the last signal from the Lyubov Orlova’s EPIRB, but there was no indication of the ship.