Ghost Ship: Abandoned Oil Tanker Mysteriously Appears in Liberia

A 207-foot Panamanian-flagged "Tamaya 1" mysteriously appeared in Robertsport Liberia Wednesday, leaving the authority and onlookers puzzled.

According to several reports, the vessel washed up on the shore without a captain or crew members in sight.

News.com.au noted that The Liberia National Police and Bureau of Immigration had already inspected the ship, which has attracted dwarfing locals ever since it washed ashore.

Quoting a port authority insider the news site wrote: "Our best bet is that the vessel's owner might have gone broke and had no money to pay crew members ... and therefore, the crew abandoned the ship."

Aside from abandonment, theory that the 1980s vessel might have been attacked by pirates also arises.

MarineTraffic.com noted that the movement of the ship was last tracked on April 22, underway toward the port of Dakar, Senegal.

As of this writing, no other information has been gathered by the Liberian Coast Guard except it is an oil tanker and it was observed to be in distress within Sierra Leonean waters and drifted toward Liberia on April 26, Front Page Africa reported.

In addition, the authorities discovered the vessel was burned along with the documents that may help them uncover the mystery. Only one raft boat has been found, meaning the crews might have used the other raft boat to escape the fire.

Motherboard has added that there was a week where the location of the vessel was not reported, which is unuaual and troubling.

Quoting Philip Miller, vice president of operations and engineering at marine monitoring company ExactEarth, the article wrote: "It is rare that these devices just stop working unless it's intentional. It's an electronic device so it would have to be turned off. If they turned it off, they're violating international law, and if it's broken, they're supposed to fix it."

Meanwhile, a report from Daily Observer reveals that the government has questioned the preparedness of the Liberia's security sector given the discovery of the vessel came days after it has already been there. Authorities claim the delay is because Robertsport does not have a seaport.

More facts about the ship is expected to be revealed this week.