ABANDONED SCHOONER MYSTERY..NO CREW, HALF-EATEN MEAL, PILES OF CLOTHES

[Laura]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17616662%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=abandoned%2dschooner%2dmystery%2d%2dno%2dcrew%2d%2da%2dhalf%2deaten%2dmeal%2dand%2dpiles%2dof%2dclothes%2d-name_page.html

Nick Pisa In Rome

A 300,000 schooner has been found floating empty in the Mediterranean - echoing the fate of the Marie Celeste over 130 years ago.

The 66ft twin-masted vessel had no name and no other identification markings.

On board there was a half-eaten meal, maps of the Med, piles of clothes and a punctured dinghy.

The boat was found drifting off the Sardinian resort of Punta Volpe.

Strong currents were pushing it towards rocks and coastguards boarded the vessel just in time and towed it to the port of Olbia.

Officials found a plaque with the name Bel Amica but said that initial checks with shipping registers had found no yacht with that name.

A spokesman said: "It gave the impression of being abandoned very quickly. It could be piracy, we just don't know."

The original Marie Celeste, which was on a voyage from New York to Italy, was found empty and drifting off the coast of Portugal in 1872.

 

[Redrock12]

Veeery veeery strange.
A more prosaic explanation is that maybe they were running drugs. They may have off-loaded their illicit cargo onto some speedboats further out to sea then simply abandoned ship.
Interesting nevertheless!

 

[John Chang]

Veeery veeery strange.
A more prosaic explanation is that maybe they were running drugs. They may have off-loaded their illicit cargo onto some speedboats further out to sea then simply abandoned ship.
Interesting nevertheless!

Running drugs on an antique sailing vessel? That crowd uses shipping containers on modern cargo ships for most of its "business". Either that or a low-flying plane, during bad weather when nobody else would fly and come after them.

Antique wooden sailing ships these days just stick out way too much, and are noticed wherever they go. Maybe there are people who still build those things, and I bet there's only a handful left in the whole world. If your theory is correct, it would be a cinch to find those people and ask them who commissioned it. From there you could find out the chain of ownership until you got to someone who's a career drug runner. From a drug runner's perspective, that doesn't make sense.

In any case, the sea is an unforgiving place, where carelessness can cost you your life. It's also a very desolate place, where lots of things can happen without notice from anyone else.

 

[Redrock12]

John Chang, you're a better detective than I am. You're right, drug runners wouldn't use that sort of vessel that sticks out like a sore thumb and could be so easily traced. I was just shooting from the hip, as they say.
So where did it come from, through an inter-dimensional portal? What happened to the crew? Was the ship badly weathered, or of recent construction? It had a rubber dinghy with a hole in it, and I don't think rubber dinghies were used until WW11. And what was the dinghy's overall condition? Did it have engines? How old are the nails and other hardware used in its construction? The condition of the sails.
This is getting intriguing.
Does anyone else have anything to add?

 

[anart]

I'm not very well-versed in the world of schooners or any private sailing vessel, is it unusual to have no identifying markings or obvious posted name on the ship? The half eaten meal, of course, indicates an unexpected departure for whoever was eating the meal, but, that doesn't mean that sudden bad weather was not to blame. I wonder if the pile of clothes found indicated whether more than one person was on board - if there was more than one person, then the chances of it being a simple 'man over board' during a sudden viscious squall seem to be diminished.

 

[Vulcan59]

Searching through the various reports of this abandon ship here is what was reported found on the ship;

..half eaten meal, maps of the Med, piles of clothes...

Mirror UK

..half eaten meal, maps of the Mediterranean and piles of clothes.

The Scotsman

..French maps of North African seas, a flag of Luxemburg, Egyptian food leftovers

Pravda

I also found 2 Italian reports at La Stampa and Il Giornale. My Italian is not that good but I think the first report seem to list the Luxemburg flag but not the 2nd report. Perhaps someone here can translate for us.

Anyone else noticed the differences in the reports?

 

[Pierre]

Here is a raw translation of the end of the article that was published in La Stampa (my Italian is far worse than my English)

Franck Rouayroux has sent an Email to explain what happened. He was on holidays in Northern Sardinia with a skipper until last week. Then the so called armator of "Bel'amica", a 22m long 2 mast vessel, said he had to quickly leave to France on the 14th of August without precising why he had to leave. Rouayroux says he tried to anchor in an harbor but he didn't find any space available. Undirectly he denied having tried to escape the new tax on private yachts that is operational since the 1st of June. It would have costed 3000 euros (exluding harbour fees). Rouayroux said he anchored in the bay facing Fox point after rolling the Luxembourg flag. He realized there was too much wind and other elements and that he therefore couldn't escape a wreckage. Identification plates were removed during a recent refurbishing and were not re-installed since then. The so-called owner negates having rented the sailboat and he will have to provide the official documents proving that he really owns this boat. He explains that Tunisian food was found in the kitchen because Bel'ami got refurbished in Tunisia. This story doesn't convince the representatives of the republic of Temple police and coast guards.

There seems to be indeed a Franck Rouayroux - see this document (page 27) http://www.etat.lu/memorial/memorial/2001/C/Pdf/c0469216.pdf#search=%22%22franck%20Rouayroux%22%22

 

[Z...]

I just posted this on similar topic when I saw this topic:

Update on the story:

http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/08_Agosto/24/veliero.shtml

it seems the boats owners have been traced, only two days after its discovery so its not a ghost ship after all

for those who dont know italian - in short thanks to the mobile phone which was found on the boat the coast guard have traced the owner Franc Rouayrux who is a citizen of Luxembourg


why dont you lock double topics?!

 

[Sigma6]

Incidentally, there are plenty of schooners, they're fairly common as yachts, sail trainers and racing vessels, and yes, people still do build old wooden sailing vessels. Even the legitimate 'antiques' are much more than a 'handful'. Not to cast aspersions on your data, John. . . but this sort of thing runs in my family :)