Ghost ship washes up in Ireland

MV Alta, last seen floating off African coast, drifted unmanned across Atlantic for more than year

A ghost ship last seen floating off the African coast six months ago has washed up in Ireland.

The 77-metre MV Alta cargo ship was spotted snagged on rocks near Ballycotton, in County Cork, by a member of the public on Sunday.

The vessel, flying a Tanzanian flag, had been drifting unmanned across the Atlantic for more than a year after it was abandoned hundreds of miles from Bermuda.

It is believed it washed up on the southwest coast of Ireland as a result of Storm Dennis over the weekend, a spokesman for the Waterford Coast Guard told the Irish Examiner.

John Tattan, lifeboat operations manager for Ballycotton RNLI, described the abandoned ship as “one in a million”.

He told the Irish Examiner he had “never, ever seen anything abandoned like that before”.

The MV Alta, built in 1976, first made headlines in September 2018 when the US coastguard rescued 10 crew members 1,380 miles southeast of Bermuda.

The crew had been stranded for 20 days and were running low on food and water after being unable to repair the disabled ship, which ran into trouble while travelling from Greece to Haiti.

The vessel was spotted again a year later in the middle of the Atlantic by Royal Navy ice patrol ship HMS Protector.

The naval ship attempted to make contact to offer its assistance at the time but received no reply.

Waterford Coast Guard shared images of the vessel on its Facebook page, adding: “Tasked earlier today to a vessel aground near Ballycotton, Cork. Thankfully there was nobody onboard today.

“The US Coast Guard had rescued the 10 crew members from the vessel back in September 30, 2018.

“The vessel has been drifting since and today came ashore on the Cork coastline. What an amazing journey.”

Cork County Council said it understood the vessel was most likely diesel-fuelled, which poses less risk of pollution than heavy fuel oil.

It added that it does not pose a risk to the special area of conservation in Ballycotton, and asked the public to stay away from the site for their own safety.