Arctic Sea: the Crew's story

Hey, what will we use for a North Korean Flag?
The Sunday Times gives a full account of the story now told by the crew. The Korean ploy is explained as follows:
"The crew said that when the Ladny first made radio contact with the Arctic Sea , Savin sought to fool its Russian navy officers by claiming the ship was North Korean - the hijackers had also painted over Solchart’s emblem on the deck."

===>>> One could wonder about the Russian statement at the time that "Both the name and an identification number painted on the Arctic Sea's stern belong to a North Korean bulk carrier that was docked in Angola at the time, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, but it offered no further explanation."

And the pictures provided show lettering that is more likely naval than work of the Latvian bravos that boarded the vessel, a paint job by the Frigate's artful sailors.

And a final nagging detail. Note how the IMO number on the stern is not square with the rest: can you imagine a spook saying to the seamen - "no, no, go back and use the right number."

Arctic Sea: Investigators and 11 Navy crew aboard

At the moment [26 October] there are four crew members on board The Arctic Sea with investigators and eleven sailors from the Russian Guided Missile warship "Ladny" - Krivak I Class Frigate. The vessel was flying the Maltese flag and had 15 Russian crew members on board when it departed from the Finnish port of Jacobstad on the 22nd of July.

Arctic Sea: Algeria refuses port call

Algeria had refused to let the Arctic Sea pass into its territorial waters.
"The cargo being carried by the Arctic Sea was destined for an Algerian customer, and we offered to tug the vessel to the Algerian port of Bejaia to hand the ship over to its owner and deliver the cargo to its recipient," the Investigative Committee at the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said, adding that no reasons had been given for the refusal.
Finnish sources found the Arctic Sea again on the list of arrivals at the Port of Bejaïa in Algeria for 4 October, but then deleted from the list.

"The Arctic Sea vessel escorted by a tugboat and the Ladny patrol ship is currently anchored off Gibraltar in the Mediterranean."

Arctic Sea: evidence removed by Russians

Maltese statement: With reference to claims in the press that the ship was due to be handed over to the Maltese Authorities, Malta as the flag State of the ship, has always maintained that it has no right to assume the ownership of the ship since it is not the rightful owner of the ship and therefore the ship should be handed over to the shipowner as the rightful owner of the ship.

Russian statement via Indian press:On Sep. 17 evidence from the Arctic Sea ship was transshipped onto Russian frigate Ladny , as mystery still surrounded the identity of its cargo one month after it was recovered from alleged pirates.

Russian investigators said evidence that showed the vessel was prey to piracy, including arms and masks, was now on its way to Russia for use in a trial against the suspected hijackers.

"The evidence will be delivered to a Russian port, where the warship Ladny and its escorting vessels will dock," the investigative committee said in a statement posted on its website.

"It includes ammunition used by the suspected pirates to capture the ship and the speedboat from which they boarded it.

The boat was camouflaged on board the Arctic Sea under a wood frame and canvass," it said.

Arctic Sea on the move with 'warship'

The Russian embassy in Madrid had requested and received permission for the Arctic Sea, which is being towed by a tug under the escort of a warship, to call at the port of Las Palmas, adding that the convoy was 14 miles off the coast and should arrive closer to evening, a Spanish marine spokesperson said.

Arctic Sea never left Islands

Russian defense officials said September 10 that the Arctic Sea will be handed over to Malta, and the Ladny frigate will return to its Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol, Crimea, and that both ships are now in one of the ports on the Canary Islands. RIA Novosti

Authorities previously said the "Arctic Sea" would arrive in the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in mid-September.

Russian Arctic Sea crew back home

NTV television says 11 crewmen arrived Saturday in the northern city of Arkhangelsk. It aired footage Sunday of reunions with relatives on a railroad platform. Russian authorities have charged eight men of different nationalities of hijacked the the Arctic Sea which was on it way from Finland to north Africa with timber. The investigation into the hijacking is made more complicated by the fact that the ship flies under the Maltese flag, the shipping line is Finnish, but is under Russian ownership, the entire crew are Russian, and the hijackers are apparently from the Baltic countries.

Russian Frigate Ladny holds crew of Arctic Sea

The Arctic Sea crew were not under armed control, some of the crew are of Russian nationality. Aboard the Frigate Ladny, the questioning aims to clarify all circumstances of how the ship disappeared and why did it not send any signals.