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Ship Disappears in European Waters

By JENNIFER QUINN

posted: 2 HOURS 36 MINUTES AGO

comments: 63

filed under: Pirates News, World News

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LONDON (Aug. 12) -- First the ship reported it had been attacked in waters off Sweden. Then it sailed with no apparent problems through one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. And then it disappeared.

The Arctic Sea, a Maltese-flagged cargo ship, was supposed to make port in Algeria with its cargo of timber on Aug. 4. More than a week later, there's no sign of the ship or its Russian crew.

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Pekka Laakso, Lehitukuva / AP

The Arctic Sea, a cargo ship, was last heard from on July 30 when it was in the Bay of Biscay, according to Russian media reports. It was due in port in Algeria on Aug. 4. The ship is seen here in Kotka, Finland, last year.

Piracy has exploded off the coast of lawless Somalia — but could this be an almost unheard of case of sea banditry in European waters?

"If this is a criminal act, it appears to be following a new business model," Marine intelligence expert Graeme Gibbon-Brooks told Sky News on Wednesday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the country's defense minister on Wednesday to take "all necessary measures" to find the missing cargo ship and, if necessary, to free its crew, the Kremlin said. Wives and other relatives of the crew members issued an appeal to the Russian government to carry out a full-scale rescue mission, using all of Russia's special services.

The mystery began on July 24, when the 15 crew members of the Arctic Sea said they were tied up and beaten by a group of up to 10 men who boarded the ship off the Swedish island of Oland. The masked men identified themselves as police officers — but Swedish police said they hadn't been searching ships in that area.

Swedish police investigator Ingemar Isaksson said the crew then claimed that the men left the ship 12 hours later in a high-speed inflatable boat.

"We were very puzzled when we first heard about this," Isaksson said then. "I have never heard of anything like this in Swedish waters."

On July 28, the Arctic Sea made contact with British maritime authorities as it passed through the busy English Channel. The ship made a routine, mandatory report — saying who they were, where they were from, where they were going and what their cargo was. It appeared routine, said Mark Clark of Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

He said the agency is "extremely curious" about what happened to the ship.

"It's bizarre," he said. "There is no coastguard I know who can remember anything like this happening."

Where the ship was next spotted is uncertain. Russian media reports say the last contact was on July 30 when the ship was in the Bay of Biscay, and that it was later spotted by a Portuguese patrol plane, but there was no contact.

But Portuguese Navy spokesman Commander Joao Barbosa said "we can guarantee that the ship is not in Portuguese waters nor did it ever pass through Portuguese waters."

The cargo was shipped by Finnish wood supplier Rets Timber, and is worth 1.3 million euros ($1.84 million), the company said.

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Dangerous Waters

The Nivose: Pirates off the coast of Kenya messed with the wrong ship Sunday. Apparently, two pirate assault boats mistook the Nivose, a French military vessel, for a commercial ship and approached it "at great speed." A French helicopter intervened and the pirates, above, were seized.

Pierre Verdy, AFP/Getty Images

"We have no idea where the ship is," company managing director Kari Naumanen told the AP in Helsinki.

Experts are very concerned about the vessel and crew, but at the same time are wary of attributing the disappearance to armed bandits.

"There have been no attacks in European waters," said Pottengal Mukundan, director of the London-based International Maritime Bureau. "It's not the kind of area where pirates would find it easy to operate."

Nick Davis, the chief executive of the Merchant Maritime Warfare Centre, told the BBC that if anything had happened to the ship, cargo would have been found.

"I strongly suspect that this is probably a commercial dispute with its owner and a third party and they've decided to take matters into their own hands," he said Wednesday.

Pirate attacks off Somalia's lawless coast are a far more familiar occurrence. Pirates have launched more than 100 attacks this year in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and are currently holding about a dozen vessels.

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Eye on the News

A nurse talks on the phone at an emergency rescue landing zone for victims of Typhoon Morakot in Cishan, Taiwan, Aug. 12.

Wally Santana, AP

Associated Press writers Lynn Berry in Moscow, Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki and Barry Hatton in Lisbon contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-08-12 11:06:20

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Fly4Fun00L

03:01 PMAug 12 2009

Something very fishy here! A ship of this size not being heard from for over two weeks and nobody was concerned?? How do you hide a vessel of this size or better yet, Russia must be way behind in super satillite spy camera's out in space. There is a lot more to this story. I feel the Russian's did not pay the company who built this vessel and they repoed it. Why not, you got something better?

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asalesguy

03:00 PMAug 12 2009

I noticed that when a poster posts a derogatory remark aimed at Obama, that a dem comes to his defense. Can't believe the reasons why such a post was printed............. Dems, you and yours wanted Bush dead; left to die choking on a pretzel. Wanted Cheney dead; left to die on an operating table. Were beside yourselves, when Scooter was sent to prison. Welllll now..... Obama has on his staff, '-communists.' Has demonstrate that he is not going to provide the transparency that he promised. His science advisor, John Holdren, has no problem with adding sterilization elements into America's water resources. Does not recognize a child less than two years old as a human being; can justify that child's abortion on that premise. Is an advocate; forced sterilization and forced abortions. Dems, even you, the DNC and Obama think of as less than, '-serfs.' Wake the hell up.

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UserMn3156

02:56 PMAug 12 2009

Wbc1962 - Because you are SO worthy of them. lol

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RDBOWHUNT

02:55 PMAug 12 2009

I understand it went down because the props ran into an unusually large bag of American ACORNS!

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Wbc1962

02:50 PMAug 12 2009

UserMn3156 >>>>>>>>>>.Did I attack you? Why are you calling me names? Are you just one of those guys with little man syndrome?

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RDBOWHUNT

02:49 PMAug 12 2009

A lot like our tax dollars! Compliments of the USA Titanic!

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Scotthfleming

02:49 PMAug 12 2009

Obama family cruise!!!!!!! I wish

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UserMn3156

02:47 PMAug 12 2009

Wbc1962 BABBLED: 02:42 PMAug 12 2009 Michelle farted and the damn thing is now gone.@@@@@@@@@@Does your mommy know you're playing on the computer again? Grow up you big baby.

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BeMahuron

02:47 PMAug 12 2009

Laurarvail1 wrote:.........if these SPAMBOTS show up hawking Colon Cleanse, shoes, handbags, or whatever, please highlight, "Copy". then go up to "Send Us Feedback" click there, then "Paste", and report them... clicking "Report This!" doesn't do that much good... it was so nice before they showed up again..........................What I find so surprising is that folks can't take an extra half second to put in a 'one star' vote and at least get them taken off the screen. The spammers are here for exposure. If their messages were not there to be seen, it defeats the very reason they are here and you're right, 'report this' does no good.

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