Abandoned And Adrift Russian Ship Located 2,400km From Ireland

Often any ship news that ends up on a site like Planetsave inevitably refers to a ship crashing into a coral reef or spilling massive amounts of oil into the ocean. However, today, we have a story that is likely to terrify you right out of your pants.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the Russian ship Lyubov Orlova has been adrift and has only just been located approximately 2,400 kilometres off the west coast of Ireland.

The cruise ship ' 'Lyubov Orlova' ' sitting derelict at dockside in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, October 2012. Image Credit: Wiki Commons
The cruise ship ‘ ‘Lyubov Orlova’ ‘ sitting derelict at dockside in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, October 2012.
Image Credit: Wiki Commons

The vessel originally left Canada on January 23 to be towed to a scrapyard in the Domincain Republic, however, a day later the cable snapped and the vessel was left to wander in international waters, no longer the responsibility of Canadian authorities (according to Canadian authorities).

Several attempts were made by the original tug boat and a subsequent offshore supply vessel to take control of the vessel, but unruly conditions and presumably a lot of bad luck hampered each attempt.

Transport Canada made a statement earlier this month, saying that “the Lyubov Orlova no longer poses a threat to the safety of offshore oil installations, their personnel or the marine environment. The vessel has drifted into international waters and given current patterns and predominant winds, it is very unlikely that the vessel will re-enter waters under Canadian jurisdiction.”

However, according to a document from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency obtained by AFP, the Lyubov Orlova has been spotted at the coordinates 49-22.70N and 044-51.34W, or roughly 1,300 nautical miles from the Irish coast.

The five major ocean gyres. Image Credit: Wiki Commons
The five major ocean gyres.
Image Credit: Wiki Commons

One can only begin to wonder at what else is floating around our oceans. We’ve all heard the stories and seen the articles about the massive swathes of garbage in the middle of the Pacific and the Atlantic: activists even made an attempt to clean the Pacific Garbage Patch once.

In fact, there was speculation that the Lyubov Orlova could end up in the North Atlantic Gyre (location of the North Atlantic Garbage Patch), or for that matter anywhere from the Norwegian Arctic to western Africa.

Given the circular motion of the North Atlantic Gyre, it boggles the mind to wonder just how long the Lyubov Orlova might spend wandering around the Ocean, and just where it will finally come to rest.

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