The Real Life Ghost Ship

image via WordPress

The MV Lyubov Orlova was constructed in 1976 as an arctic cruise ship. After cruising the Arctic Ocean for nearly thirty years, the ship was seized in 2012 upon docking at St. Johns, Newfoundland for unpaid debts of $250,000. Considering that the fifty-one strong crew hadn't been paid in five months, it was unlikely that the owner, Cruise North Expeditions, was going to be able to pay off the debt.

After two years of sitting in port, it was sold to a scrapping company to be broken up, and thus began the most interesting chapter of the ship's history.

The towing was tasked out the tug Charlene Hunt to take the aging cruise ship to the Dominican Republic for scrapping. The only problem was that Charlene Hunt was hardly fit to sail, much less tow and entire cruise ship.

During the tug's last inspection it was determined that she had "a lack of structural and watertight integrity" due to, among other issues "leaky hatch covers, leaky exterior doors, [and] a cracked window".

It also nearly sank on its way to pick up the dilapidated cruise ship.

image via WorldShipWrecks

The ship they were towing was probably more seaworthy.

To say the tug inadequate was an understatement; the tow-line broke a day into the tow and Charlene Hunt headed back to port. According to the towing company, Hunt Marine Incorporated, "Continued efforts to tow the the Lyubov Orlova would have caused unacceptable risk to the crews of the towing operation" which probably had more to due with the tug than the abandoned ocean liner.

image via TSB

May as well christened it the Titanic Jr.

Three days later, the adrift ship was nearing offshore oil rigs, had to be snagged before she smashed into one of them. The much larger Atlantic Hawk was sent out to tow it away, which it did right up until it hit international waters. Then they cut Lyubov Orlova loose.

Since nobody owned the ship, the Canadian government issued a statement that  essentially said "Fuck you, it's not our problem anymore."

image via PlasticSoupFoundation

They promptly followed that message with an apology and complimentary bottle of maple syrup.

For the next month and a half, the Lyubov Orlova drifted away in the North Atlantic Ocean with nothing but ocean currents to direct it, and a large contingent of rats eating each other. Experts best guess at it's location was somewhere between Canada and fuck knows.

It was was last detected about 700 miles from the Irish coast when an emergency beacon on board a lifeboat that was suspected to have fallen off was activated on board on 12 March.

A week later the ship itself was detected on radar off the Irish coast, but when a search plane was sent out to locate the derelict it found nothing. And that was the last of the Lyubov Orlov anyone has ever seen . . .yet. It could still be out there to this day.

. . . though it most likely sunk.