the re-appearence of the MV alta

iey - appologies this thread is late - i got the alert of its beaching - but was away - so " filed it to do a thread when i return home " - promptly forgot - now doing admin - to cull all dead stuff from comp tablet and phone - oh yeah - forgot that

the synopsis - mearly 2 years ago - the MV alta - a cargo vessel - lost all propulsion in the vicinity of bermuda - a rescue effort by the USCG // USN - safley recovered all crew - but due to weather and distance - nothing was availiable that could take the vessel under tow

for " reasons " - the crew dispesed and found employment on other vessels - and the altas owners and agents nade zero attempots to launch a salvage operation

with no power - all her beacons and AIS were dead - and the ship drifted

a positive sighting was made - nearly 1 year later - by a british research vessel - the ships owners again did nothing

then in feburary 2020 - the vessel was grounded by a storm against the coast of the irish republic - as it then became an " irish problem " - the irish military and specialist civilian contractors - removed toxic hemicals anbd other polutants [ fuels and lubricants ] from the wreck - they hope to recover costs of operations from the insurance policy that was covering the vessel - at the time it was abandoned

the ships owners - still do nothing - and the wreck is " scrap value only " at this point - and its very easy for curcumstances to turn such a salvage operation into a massive financial disaster - so no 3rd party wants to touch it

the irish govt - may have to do something - but they dont want to - unless further environmental issues force them

now the ATS angle

the fact that the vessel driffted un manned from bermuda - to the irish republic - is not that big of a mystery - it was seaworthy when abandoned - with all hatches tight - and its id drift sighting - was at an obvious point

nor is the lack of other sightings - any issue - the north atlantic is a vast expanse of water - and with no electronics - it would be easy to miss - even if within a vessels visual and or radar horizon [ many faint radar returns would be ignored - as they were not a direct threat to a vessels intended track ]

what makes one go hmm - is the blanket claim - that no one knew where it was // tracked it - and its sudden appearence beached on an irish rock outcrop was a " srprise " to everyone

few expect any one to have done anything [ except perhaps a series of notices to mariners - charting its path ] - but such a target - SHOULD have been trackable

it would make a good target for various military units " you exercise today = locate the MV alta "

and its " surprise " landing in the irish republic - makes one wonder whether the irish matitime sruveilience network [ primary - to counter drug and human trafficking vessels ] - is actually working

my " gut instinct " - is that they were for " reasons " - attempting to protect the capabilities - ov various systems - that are mainly public domain already - which begs the question - why ?

but hey - out of time - so - discus

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Hard to believe that any country with access to 5-Eyes satellite surveillance would not have been able to track the ship's drift toward Ireland. Some cloudy days? Okay, but still ...

Cheers

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

Very easy to believe. Just because they have the way doesn't mean they have the will.

A derelict ship adrift is much lower priority, a hair's width above nil, than anything that could be perceived as a threat to basically security.

maybe easy to find--if one is looking for it

no reason anyone should be eyeballing the middle of the ocean

still, interesting story. wonder if they regret abandoning. probly not worth saving.

a couple of points on ship tracking // detection :

a lot of systems use " wake detection " - as a vessel - generates a huge wake - in proportion to its sixe



a 200m LOA cross chanel ferry [ english chanel ] - with a 22knt opeartional cruise speed

wake is big bright and easy to detect

google will give you more info - on military and civilian apps

obviosly - MV alta - had no wake

also - for tracking live vesselks

lights and thermal [ stack heat ] are big targets - for all but military vessels [ and only a few of those have thermal suppression ]

thats that bit

,y sticking point of personal incredulity - is the plethora of systems out there - that could have tracked this - the need to keep all tested , calibrated and the operators trained

but they claim - no one ever looked - and systems that are SUPPOSED to alert certain authorities of all and every vessel - either failed - or " they " are lying about the fact that systems they publicise - as the tools that are supposed to detect vessels - actually did what they claimed - and detected an errant vessel

No wake because it wasn't under power.

originally posted by: mikell
No wake because it wasn't under power.

At a top speed of 7 1/2 knots she would never leave much of a wake. I’m more concerned about why the owner didn’t sell her to the ship breakers for scrap as opposed to walking away. A small general cargo like Alta has uses. It what we use to refer to a tramp steamer. You still see them plying the Caribbean from island to island.

I would love to have a ship like this, she would make a great research platform or live aboard dive vessel.

It looks like she changed names every few years. I guess she ran out of luck. There is a proper process to change the name of a vessel or bad luck will follow her.