Life
'Ghost Ship' Appears Off Coast And People Get Goosebumps
Creeeeepy.
Jessica Adler
09.10.18

A gigantic “ghost ship” was discovered drifting in the Myanmar seas by local fishermen on Monday, August 27th.

The enormous container ship was originally situated near the mouth of the Sittoung River, which lies just seven nautical miles away from Thamaseitta Village, Thoang Township, in the Yangon region.

The ghost ship eventually ran aground on a nearby beach… but was found completely empty.

Facebook/Yangon Police
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Facebook/Yangon Police

The mysterious arrival of the ghost ship prompted authorities to begin investigations into its previously known whereabouts.

After the Myanmar Navy boarded the unknown ship, they discovered the registered name of it to be the Sam Ratulangi PB 1600.

According to Marine Traffic, the massive ghost ship was built in 2001 and was only in service for roughly eight years, before it strangely went missing in 2009, when it dropped off the radar somewhere near the coast of Taiwan.

Facebook/Yangon Police
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Facebook/Yangon Police

Measuring in at over 580 feet (177 meters) long, that is a lot of ship to just up and disappear.

Once boarded, the ship was found to be devoid of any signs of life or labor whatsoever.

While “ghost ships” are not considered to be rare occurrences, they generally get their title because there is usually dead bodies aboard or at least people who are very near to death.

On the massive and rusting Ratulangi, however, everything from the engine to the oil itself appeared to have been in disrepair for some time.

Even the kitchen and dining room were untouched.

Facebook/Yangon Police
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Facebook/Yangon Police

On further investigation, Navy personnel found that a small crew on a tugboat, named Independence, had been trying to tow the decommissioned freighter to a ship-breaking factory in Bangladesh to salvage the material.

According to Global News, although controversial in terms of environmental and employee health, salvaging costly ship materials is both a common and a lucrative practice.

“More than 80 per cent of obsolete commercial vessels are broken down on beaches in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, although the process has been criticized for harming the environment and putting workers at risk. Large ships can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in scrap metal.”

Facebook/Yangon Police
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Facebook/Yangon Police

While aboard the ghost ship, investigators noticed two cables were attached to the front of the ship and had been broken off, leading them to believe the ship had been in tow.

After discovering the broken cables, the Tatmadaw (the Navy) performed a local radar search for “suspicious” looking boats between the Yangon and Sittaung Rivers.

Facebook/Yangon Police
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Facebook/Yangon Police

Investigations uncovered that, indeed, there had been two boats that fit this description drifting in the water between August 26th and 27th in the Myanmar seas.

After catching up with the Independence, roughly fifty miles off the Myanmar coast as they were headed away from the country, the Navy seized their tugboat to question the 13 crew members about the abandoned ghost ship.

According to news outlet Eleven Myanmar, a statement released by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services, Min Aung Hlaing, said that circumstances surrounding the recent abandonment of the ghost ship became more clear after speaking with the Independence crew members.

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Facebook/Yangon Police
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Facebook/Yangon Police

The statement reported that the crew admitted that on August 13th they attached the ghost ship to the Independence with the two cables found at the front of the abandoned ship.

They were, in fact, headed to Bangladesh to scrap the enormous ship, but while approaching the mouth of the Yangon River from the south on August 26th, inclement weather prevented them from being able to safely travel through the waters with the ship in tow, explaining why they had detached from the ship and abandoned it.

While the Independence was found to be registered to a Malaysian owner, the Ratalangi itself is registered in Palau.

Investigations into where the ship had originally been found, and how it went missing back in 2009, are still ongoing.

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