NAVY SEEKS TO SOLVE MYSTERY OF 'GHOST SHIP'

The MV Altana adrift off the eastern coast of Vietnam as found by the Vietnamese Coast Guard.

Credit: As Reported by the US Merchants Admiralty News, Issue

34, June 2018

Vietnam - Residents of Nha Trang, a coastal port city in southern Vietnam, were in for a rather unusual surprise one morning. About sixteen kilometers from the coastline, in international waters, a large merchant ship had appeared adrift and aground near one of the small unnamed islands. As the day continued on, the ship remained idle. A crew of fishermen headed out to explore the ship, only to discover it completely devoid of any human life. No log or sign of the crew was found, although the ship was well provisioned. A large cargo container was found in the hold, heavily damaged, which has been put under quarantine. The ship was identified as the MV Altana, a merchant ship J.J. 7200T. The ship had a Port of Registry of Panama and sported an Indonesian flag, but its purpose was otherwise unknown to the city’s residents. Throughout the rest of the week, the Vietnamese Coast Guard, Nha Trang Police, and Vietnamese Navy kept a close distance and placed the ship under surveillance but confirmed it was the abandoned cargo ship. The navy stated that it may have been towed by another ship, as there were two cables at its front. The Vietnamese Coast Guard confirmed the MV Altana had been equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS) which allowed its movements to be tracked. The ship periodically switched the AIS on and off as it mostly traveled around the South China Sea. Deactivating the AIS was seen as suspicious, as is the numerous name changes the ship had in its later years, which can indicate involvement in smuggling or military activity. Preparations were made to have the MV Altana secured and inspected by maritime officials to ensure the ship could be towed back to Nha Trang after being cleared by the Vietnamese Naval Authorities and Ministry of Public Health. On Tuesday, June 24, the MV Altana was rigged for towing by two tugs and made the journey to the mainland. Communication was sent to the owners of the vessel, the Bill Henderson Transport Company in Panama, Central America.

An unfortunate storm and a derailed voyage

It wasn’t until the following week when some answers came to light. A search of the shipping records by the Vietnamese Navy officials revealed another merchant vessel, the MV Freedom, Port of Registry New England, United States which had been carrying sixteen unregistered Indonesian crew members without merchant seamen papers had been some 200 miles east of Vietnam in the South China Sea. Captain Barry Morton, of Boston, New England was the ship's commander under contract with the Barrow Shipping Company. Shipping orders were chartered by Bourne University's for special passage of archaeological specimens from China. However, port of call papers showed the ship had ported at Aceh Province, Sumatra. The MV Freedom had left port on May 1 and headed north, where it was AIS plotting showed the two ships had been within 12 miles of each other before AIS systems were shut down. On account of the MV Altana's own engines may have malfunctioned, the MV Freedom's merchant crew may have been brought in to transport and deliver the cargo container to the MV Altana. The MV Freedom adrift off the coast of Palawan, Philippines. Mystery surrounds the fate of the crew of this and the MV Altana who investigators believe were somehow related. The last radio transmission from the MV Freedom, under merchant orders, was made on May 9th. The ship was found abandoned on June 26th of Rizal, Palawan, Philippines. Its four lifeboats and nine inflatable life rafts were missing. The abandoned 50 ton American vessel had been gutted by fire several days previously. No mayday call was received. A search of 30,000 square miles of the South China Sea east of Malaysia by American, Indonesian and Philippine naval and air search and rescue units found no trace of the American captain or crew of 12 Americans, 6 Indonesians, and 12 Chinese sailors. Authorities speculate that the two ships performed some form of 'at sea transfer' of cargo from the MV Freedom to the MV Altana, which they believe was some form of illegal materials. During the transfer, however, the two ships entered into a storm, or some form of destructive calamity, whereupon the bad weather or issue caused the securing cables to come undone. The MV Altana then drifted far off course, eventually coming to a stop along Nha Trangs’s coastline. Meanwhile, the steadily worsening storm forced the MV Freedom’s crew to leave the area and seek safety elsewhere upon the shore, where the tragedy unfolded.

A Palaeontologists Breakthrough

As for the purpose of the voyage, the MV Freedom was contracted for Bourne University on route to New York, USA. The ship’s cargo was of fossilized remains of a newly discovered species of gigantic marine Arthropod, also known as the sand flea. The puzzling fossils had been discovered near the southern coast of Africa last year. Specifically, they had been found in the Klasies River Caves east of the Klasies River Mouth, on the Tsitsikamma coast in the Humansdorp district of Eastern Cape Province. The storage containers in port at Aceh Province, Sumatra. They were recorded in manifest to contain ancient arthropod fossils, according to Maritime Investigations. Image Credit: Bourne University Maritime Archaeology Department. Several important excavations have and are also occurring there in the same region, investigating human Paleolithic stone technology from 125,000 years ago, as well as occupancy some 75,000 years ago, uncovering bones and artifacts from the Middle Stone Age periods. Doctor Kenneth Arnold, Head of the Maritime Archaeology Department at Bourne University, had said in a previous archaeological periodical interview in the Life Sciences Today, “This is a very exciting discovery for us. This massive 'sand flea' has been extinct for nearly 3 billion years. To have these fossils emerging from the Kaapvaal Craton is a truly pleasant surprise. There will be much to study, and the results are sure to have an impact on the world of science as we know it.” He also mentioned the similar 1910 case of the HMS Barrows, a whaling ship that vanished in the Atlantic after finding a protruding ruin from the seafloor after local volcanic eruptions. On his quoting on "A Commentary on the Book of Gates" by Jebidiah Smith, he stated the fossils were in comparison to the "Spawn of Nigghaac", which were around the oceans of "Yidath".

As one mystery is solved, another emerges

Even though the MV Altana was successfully and safely located after the storm, it appears that all is not well. Upon further investigation of the ship’s contents, authorities discovered an unusual digestive solution, akin to sea anemones, around the deck and crew quarters. More importantly, the fossilized remains mysteriously went missing, with the storage containers broken and scattered in the cargo hold. The MV Altana in port dock at Nha Trang, Vietnam. The Philippine naval staff who originally explored the MV Freedom were questioned, but they all denied having taken anything, and so far there has been no evidence to condemn the MV Freedom crew of any sort of piracy. The navy believes the storm might be responsible for the fossils’ disappearance, as the storm was shown to have caused other structural damage to the ship, but this has yet to be confirmed. As of this report, it is unknown what became of the fossils, although the Merchant Authority has stated the investigation will continue. Bourne University has refused to comment on the current investigation.