Pirate fears after ship goes missing in the English Channel
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The whereabouts of a cargo ship was unknown today amid fears that it travelled through the English Channel under the control of pirates.
An international maritime search has been launched for the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea and its 15-strong Russian crew whose last known contact was with British Coastguards as it prepared to enter the Channel.
Contact was lost with the ship after radio communication was made with Dover Coastguard as it was about to enter the Strait of Dover from the North Sea at 1.52pm on July 28.
There are concerns that crew members on board the 3,988-tonne ship, carrying about £1 million worth of sawn timber from Finland to Algeria, may have been coerced by hijackers when contact was made with the Coastguards.
Mark Clark, of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), said Dover Coastguard were unsuspecting of anything untoward as a supposed crew member radioed them before the ship journeyed through one of the world's busiest waterways.
The person on board the vessel told the Coastguard the ship was due to arrive in Bejaia in northern Algeria on August 4 at 11pm, Mr Clark said.
But its whereabouts was shrouded in mystery last night amid reports that the Russian navy is set to deploy vessels to help locate the missing ship.
Mr Clark said: "The ship contacted Dover Coastguard on July 28 and that was the last time anyone has heard from them.
"There didn't seem anything suspicious when contact was made. It could well be that a crew member had a gun put to his head by a hijacker when contact was made but who knows?
"What we do know is that on July 28 they talked to us and said they were going to arrive in Bejaia and they were going to deliver the wood, arriving there on August 4 at 2300."
According to reports, Swedish authorities were told by the Finnish shipping line operating the vessel that on July 24 it had been boarded by up to 10 armed men purporting to be anti-drugs police as it sailed through the Baltic Sea.
Some 12 hours later the intruders apparently left the ship on a high-speed inflatable boat and allowed the vessel to continue on its passage but with its communications equipment damaged.
Then on August 3 Dover Coastguard was informed by Interpol that the crew had been hijacked in the Baltic Sea and asked them to be alert as it passed through the Channel.
But by that point the Arctic Sea had already completed its voyage through the Strait of Dover. It was last recorded on the AISLive ship tracking system off the coast of Brest, northern France, just before 1.30am on July 30.
The MCA said it was told the vessel had later been spotted by a Portuguese coastal patrol aircraft but its current whereabouts were unknown.
Mr Clark said: "It's bizarre. There is no Coastguard I know who can remember anything like this happening.
"Who would think that a hijacked ship could pass through one of the most policed and concentrated waters in the world?
"It seems strange to think that a ship which had been hijacked was passing along the Channel along with ships carrying daytrippers going over to Calais for the day."
Mr Clark said an innocent explanation was improbable and he added: "We are extremely curious to find out what could have happened to this vessel."
Vladimir Kochurov, deputy head of the Arkhangelsk regional administration's transport department, told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency that they were assessing the situation.
He said: "So far, we have scarce information. Security services are holding the investigation.
"Meanwhile, the regional administration is ready for rapid reaction in case the situation clarifies. We will give assistance to the crew."