The Alta is a general cargo ship whose ownership has not been clarified since February 2020. The motor ship washed up on the Irish south coast on February 16, 2020 as a ghost ship .
Ghost ship
A jogger discovered the deserted and driverless Alta on the Irish south coast about five kilometers southwest of the village of Ballycotton in eastern County Cork . The ship, which appears largely intact, appeared to have washed ashore in the course of the passage of the winter storm "Dennis" and this without any signs of storm damage in the region. Initial research by the Irish authorities revealed that the freighter was the Alta, which once sailed under the Tanzanian flag .
The ship, built in 1976, was en route from Greece to Haiti on the Atlantic Ocean in late summer 2018 , when the ship's propulsion system failed due to a technical defect halfway between Africa and North America , about 2200 km southeast of Bermuda and 2750 km west of the African coast. Attempts by the crew to repair the damage with on-board resources failed and the ship was unable to maneuver in the Atlantic for some time.
The Alta 1,300 miles southeast of Bermuda (October 2018)
The ten-member crew was from a SAR AIRPLANE type Lockheed HC-130 of the US Coast Guard supplied on 2 October 2018 food until five days later from the cutter USCGC Confidence (619 WMEC) was brought before a gathering storm of board . Since then, the ship has drifted abandoned in the Atlantic, although the ship was originally intended to be towed.
Before the stranding in February 2020, there was only one documented sighting of the drifting ship when the British HMS Protector (A173) approached the Alta on August 31, 2019 . Attempts to contact the Protector went unanswered and only the position at that time about 2400 km north of the last known position was recorded. On February 16, 2020, the Alta ran aground on Ireland's south coast about 3.75 km southwest of Ballycotton in County Cork . In the 18 months since the accident , she had covered a distance of around 4,300 km.
It was noted with relief that neither supplies nor cargo had leaked. A week after the stranding, the cargo, which consisted of 95 oil drums, 33 of which were empty, was retrieved by helicopter. It has not yet been decided whether the ship will be recovered, as no owner has yet been determined. The scrap value of the wreck is only a third of the estimated salvage costs of 10 million euros .
