Ghost ships: "Jian Seng" - Tanker without crew, without trace, sunk

Ghost ships have fascinated people for centuries. They symbolise the unknown at sea, stories that defy any clear explanation. Some are based on real events, others are pure legends, passed on by generations of sailors. In his book "Maritime myths" collected numerous of these puzzling cases.

Another "ghost ship" tanker has hit the headlines recently: The Russian LNG tanker "Arctic Metagaz" is drifting after Damage unable to manoeuvre in the MediterraneanThe crew was evacuated, authorities warned of the unmanned ship and possible environmental risks. Such cases show that the phenomenon is not new - as early as 2006, a tanker with no clear identity and no visible crew appeared off Australia and became a political bone of contention: the later "Jian Seng", a real ghost ship that was even sunk in the end.

Sighting from the air: A tanker without life on board

Because they are not always visible, ghost ships often seem to appear out of nowhere, as if they come from a parallel world. Thanks to modern maritime surveillance tools, it is now more difficult for them to hide. Look at this case, for example, when an Australian Coast Guard plane flew over the Gulf of Carpentaria on 7 March 2006.

No name, no home port: What is this ship?

One of the aerial reconnaissance aircraft suddenly spotted a vessel of unknown origin, three nautical miles inside Australian territory, 127 nautical miles north-west of Cape Wessels. It was an approximately 80 metre long tanker with its engines switched off, with no visible activity on board, either legal or illegal - no crew member was visible. The pilots recognised a torn tow rope on the apparently drifting tanker, but were unable to identify the vessel clearly.

Boarding and inspection: the ghost ship is abandoned

The customs authorities analysed the aerial images and sent the patrol boat "Storm Bay" to the coordinates. The team arrived in the sea area during the night, but had to wait until the morning before they could launch a dinghy to board the abandoned tanker. Once there, the Australian authorities could only realise what they had already suspected from the air: The tanker had been abandoned. They searched the ghost ship and found no traces of human presence or illegal activity.

Overpainted identity: traces of "Jian Seng"

On 24 March 2006, an Australian Customs spokesman told the media that his colleagues had found no information about the registration of this ship or its home port. Nevertheless, the few clues found on the boat suggested that it was the "Jian Seng", although attempts had obviously been made to paint over its name.

Hypothesis: rice, fuel, supply on the high seas

Customs confiscated a large quantity of rice on board the tanker. They concluded that the "Jian Seng" - if that was indeed its name - was probably being used to supply food and fuel to fishing boats in waters outside Australia's economic zone.

What really happened? The unanswered questions

However, the circumstances under which the "Jian Seng" had suffered an accident and why it had drifted to the position where it was found remained largely unexplained. According to the team that boarded the abandoned tanker, it had apparently been drifting southwards for a very long period of time, with its engines out of order and unable to be started. The authorities also found that the "Jian Seng" had been stripped of its equipment, suggesting that it may have been on its way to be scrapped when its tow cable snapped.

All that is certain is that there were no distress calls, no personal belongings and not even a simple report of a missing ship. Who did the "Jian Seng" belong to? Was that even her real name? Where did she come from and where was she going? What happened to the crew? All these questions will probably remain unanswered forever.

Recovery with risk: oil spill and environmental hazard

The "Jian Seng" was initially observed for several days before the Australian authorities decided to transfer it to the nearest harbour. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) eventually sent a tugboat to salvage the vessel. However, due to the distance and the need to withdraw salvage teams from the east coast, the salvage vessel only arrived on 27 March and towed the "Jian Seng" to Weipa, a coastal town in the state of Queensland. The manoeuvre created an oil slick that posed a risk to the environment and was subsequently removed under the supervision of Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ). The "Jian Seng" remained in Weipa for almost a month. As no owner came forward to reclaim the tanker, it was subsequently taken into deep water and sunk on 21 April 2006.

Political dispute: ignored for 17 days?

However, the discovery of the unknown ship caused controversy at the highest level as early as the end of March. Speaking to the Australian Senate, Justice and Customs Minister Chris Ellison initially emphasised that the discovery of this wreck illustrated the effectiveness of monitoring ships that violate Australia's borders. After it was spotted in a remote part of Australian waters and photographed by a customs aircraft before it returned to base, a ship was immediately dispatched to the scene. Senator Joseph William Ludwig from Queensland replied that it was rather extraordinary that the ship had not been intercepted earlier, given the distance it had already travelled south in Australian territorial waters.

Why did it take the shipping authorities two weeks to stop this wreck? This question arises all the more because the search area is known for illegal Indonesian fishing vessels as well as human and drug smuggling. Senator Ludwig therefore wondered how Australian Customs would identify illegal fishing vessels if even a huge oil tanker had not been detected in the Gulf of Carpentaria for such a long period of time.

According to Chris Ellison, there was no illegal activity on the ship when it was first sighted on 7 March, and he disputed the opposition's claim that it had been drifting for 17 days. However, Ludwig followed up by reminding the audience that it was not Australian customs that found the tanker, but an "Australian cargo ship that happened to be passing by". Ellison's defence was that although a ship had claimed to have crossed the tanker's path, this had happened more than two weeks after customs had spotted it drifting from the air. He also explained that Ludwig "wrongly assumes that merchant ships play no part in Australia's surveillance" and that there is a hotline for such incidents.

A short time later, Senator Kerry O'Brien from Tasmania criticised the government's implementation of coastal protection and emphasised the dangers of ignoring a ship for 17 days as it "posed and may still pose unknown risks to the environment". The "Jian Seng" should not have been allowed to enter Weipa harbour as it could have been carrying literally anything from chemicals to firearms.

Not the first ghost ship

The incident has left its mark on Australian politics. Of course, no one was or is indifferent to protecting the coast of the island continent. Especially as the "Jian Seng" was the second ghost ship to enter Australian waters in just a few years.

Three years earlier, on 8 January 2003, the "High Aim 6", a Taiwanese fishing vessel flying the Indonesian flag, was found drifting in Australian waters without its crew. The vessel had left the port of Liuqiu in southern Taiwan on 31 October 2002, and the owner Tsai Huang Shueh-er had last been in contact with the captain of the vessel in December 2002.

What happened next remains a mystery, as the only Indonesian crew member found eventually stated that Captain Chen Tai-cheng and engineer Lin Chung-li had been murdered. However, the exact circumstances and reasons for the mutiny could never be clarified. Just like the "Jian Seng" two years later, the Australian authorities finally scuttled the "High Aim 6" off the coast of Broome in the north-west of Western Australia in 2004 to turn it into a reef for fish.

Ghost ships today: real - and yet without history

While the "High Aim 6" was clearly identified, this was not the case with the "Jian Seng". Sometimes ghost ships are real, but they are also so mysterious that they don't even have a history.

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