Floating 'atomic bomb' vessel may be Irish-owned
The floating “atomic bomb” freighter, under arrest in a Greek port with more than 600 tons of explosives on board was today reported to be Irish owned and was detained in a British harbour earlier this year.
While in detention in Seaham, Co Durham, in January, the Sea Runner, as it was then called, was sold at auction for £22,000 (€31,780). The crew had not been paid because of the mounting fines on the owners.
After minor repairs, the ship sailed from Seaham in March with a new name and flag: the Baltic Sky under the colours of the Indian Ocean state of Comoros, which openly advertises itself as an “Islamic flag of convenience.”
The current owner is listed as Alpha Shipping Inc. based in the tiny Pacific Ocean nation of Marshall Islands, where it’s reportedly possible to register a company online with a credit card number.
But the ship’s managing company – Unithorn Ltd based in Sligo – is believed to point toward the real owners: an Irish family linked to a string of shipping firms, industry experts said.
Lloyd’s List, an authoritative source on shipping issues, reported that Christian McNulty, a member of a well-known Irish ship operating family, has “openly told maritime sources” that he was the main shareholder of Alpha.
Attempts to reach McNulty or Unithorn were unsuccessful. A phone listing for Unithorn reached a recording saying the number was “temporarily unavailable.”
The Baltic Sky’s sister ship, Baltic Star, is currently detained for maritime violations in the Belgian port of Antwerp and its crew hasn’t been paid since January, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) said.
The 37-year-old Baltic Sky is a classic study of the shipping industry’s self-built maze: the ability to swap names, flags and managing companies to create a baffling global paper trail.
“The Baltic Sky is an almost worthless rust bucket of a ship,” said a report by the ITF, a London-based umbrella organisation for more than 620 labour groups around the world.
Greece’s merchant marine minister, Giorgos Anomeritis, described the ship as a floating “atomic bomb” after its cargo of 680 tons of ammonium nitrate-based explosives was seized. The ship’s manifest said it was bound for a company in Sudan, but the vessel wandered at sea for nearly six weeks as international authorities grew suspicious.
The seven crew members face charges of entering Greek waters without announcing the hazardous cargo. The probe into the ship has not ruled out possible terrorist links.
The vessel, originally called the Artsiz, was built in 1966 at a Danube River shipyard in Hungary. It sailed under a Soviet flag until early 1992, then switched briefly to Russian and flew the Ukrainian flag from late 1992 until July 2001, when it was sold by its presumed Russian owners to a new operator based in Estonia, according to the ITF.
The ship was now called the Sea Runner and flew the flag of Cambodia, one of the so-called “flags of convenience” used by shipping companies to avoid taxes and benefit from lax regulations.
Port inspectors around Europe detained the ship at least five times in one year beginning in August 2001.
The problems cited included substandard safety equipment and on-board oil leaks, according to Lloyds Seasearcher, a compilation of shipping data.
