News that yet another “Russian ghost ship” had mysteriously sunk surprised many readers who had never heard of this spectral fleet.
A Russian cargo ship that sank on Tuesday in the Mediterranean Sea was the target of an ‘act of terrorism’, according to the vessel’s owner. The Ursa Major sank while it was sailing through international waters between Spain and Algeria, leaving two crew members missing. Its owner, Oboronlogistika – a company affiliated with the Russian defence ministry – said on Wednesday that three explosions on the starboard side of the ship caused the sinking.
At the time the ship foundered, it was believed to be transporting massive cranes to aid in the establishment of a Russian facility in Libya that could replace the Kremlin’s lost bases there. But beyond the individual ship is the flotilla to which it belongs. The ghost fleet of which "Ursa Major" was part has been growing since 2022. As the Center for Maritime Strategy notes:
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has joined Iran and other pariah nations in using “ghost ships” to transport oil and other goods and bypass international sanctions. Russia’s ghost fleet primarily consists of older vessels that have a higher risk of breaking down and being involved in accidents. Beyond the inherent risks of using older, run-down vessels, ghost ships also engage in risky behavior by turning off their Automatic Identification Systems (“AIS”) and spoofing their locations to conceal illegal activities.
But war is never a one-way street. As the New York Times notes, other units of this fleet could be striking back. “The Finnish authorities seized an oil tanker on Thursday on the suspicion that it was involved in cutting vital undersea cables and said the ship might have been part of Russia’s 'shadow fleet,' aimed at evading Western sanctions.”
The ship, which is registered in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, had been sailing from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Port Said, Egypt, when it was detained. … The investigation comes as a number of other undersea cables have been cut in recent months, raising fears of a covert campaign against NATO nations that have supported Ukraine in the face of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Russia is not alone in this enterprise. Iran and Venezuela also operate shadow ships, often tankers, to avoid Western oil sanctions. “On February 7th, 2024, a mystery vessel began leaking oil and ran aground on a reef off the coast of Tobago, one of the two main islands of the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago.” Eventually, open-source sleuths tracked it back to its last AIS position at the ASTINAVE shipyard in Amuay, Venezuela.
Despite their low profile, the size of these secret fleets is considerable. S&P Global Market Intelligence said in a whitepaper that 443 tanker vessels (with a DWT greater than 10,000) are currently operating as ghosts. The total number of Russian blockade runners may be as high as 1,900. Incidents involving them are also low-key despite the scale of the disasters caused. On May 1, 2023, the oil tanker Pablo blew up off the coast of Indonesia. “The Gabon-registered vessel, capable of transporting approximately 700,000 barrels of crude oil, was traversing the South China Sea after unloading its cargo in China and was nearly empty… Namely, the Aframax tanker is believed to belong to the so-called ‘shadow fleet of vessels’ being utilized to transport sanctioned oil across the globe. Namely, various reports pointed out that the ship was stripped of its flag several times over the past year amid ties to illicit trading of Iranian oil.”
What is more, there is scant evidence regarding the owner, a company registered in the Marshall Islands, which possesses no other ships, and there is no trace of any insurance coverage. Both these factors are critical prerequisites for commencing the cleanup operations, Bloomberg reports.
The identity of who might possibly be attacking the ghost fleets is also shrouded in mystery. The speculative enemies of Iran and Russia are Israel and Ukraine, respectively. As far back as 2009, the Telegraph reported that a “cargo ship that disappeared for almost a month earlier this summer was carrying weapons to Iran and was being tracked by Mossad, the Israeli security service, according to reports.” Russian grain smuggling ships have openly been targeted by Ukraine using both drones and seizures. “Ukraine's security services have seized a foreign cargo vessel for allegedly transporting grain illegally through the closed Black Sea ports of Russian-occupied Crimea, the country's General Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday.”
But there could be more combatants in the war of ghosts. Two missing Navy SEALs were helping interdict a ship transporting weapons to Houthis, says the U.S. Naval Institute News. “Seized items include propulsion, guidance, and warheads for Houthi medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) and anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), as well as air defense associated components. Initial analysis indicates these same weapons have been employed by the Houthis to threaten and attack innocent mariners on international merchant ships transiting in the Red Sea,” read a Navy statement.
Sometimes, whole ships disappear. “A vessel smuggling foreign experts and military materials for missile production destined for Iran-backed Houthis of Yemen has gone missing in the Red Sea, media reports say. “The vessel, now missing for three days, has triggered a patrol and reconnaissance mission by the Houthis, as reported by UAE-based Al-Ain news website.”
A low-level, secret war at sea is probably under way with secret fights and secret deaths. You don’t believe in ghosts?
