Tankers

Mystery surrounds beached product tanker with no crew onboard

Social media in West Africa is trying to piece together what happened to the product tanker Tamaya 1, which drifted ashore today near Robertsport on the northern Liberian coast.

Nobody was onboard when the ship hit sandy beach this morning. The vessel’s last AIS signal was from 12 days ago, near Dakar.

With piracy in the region high at the moment, speculation is mounting that the crew of the 1,441-dwt  vessel have been taken hostage.

The 1980-built ship is managed by Sodatra out of Dakar. Its classification has been withdrawn as it was overdue for a survey, leading others to speculate that the Panama-flagged ship had simply been abandoned.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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