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 Interpol
issued a statement on an old 2758 grt bunkers tanker the the other week,
advising all ports not to accept her and report her whereabouts
immediately. They said she had stolen a cargo of oil.
The NEW HORZIONS, from doing a little digging and trying to put
names and dates together, is a very old little ship indeed. She was built
in 1958 in Collingwood Shipyards, Canada for Shell Tankers as the TYEE
SHELL. In 1970 she became ARTIC TRADER, then RIVER SHELL in 1983 and
HORIZON MONTREAL in 1995. Thereafter she took the name ALYCIA S.I. in 2004,
then, perplexingly enough, in the same year changed almost imperceptibly
to ALYCIA S.1.
Yes, there IS a different name there if you look close
enough and the change sure saved on paint.
Finally in 2005 she emerges as the NEW HORIZONS, registered in Guyana and
today is operated by BK Shipping of that happy country.
As the ALYCIA S.1 in August 2004 she got a rather bad name for herself at
Montreal when she was detained for a whopping 13 days with 33
deficiencies, but since then, no real problems.
Except just recently.
The vessel had loaded bunker oil worth $1 million in Barranquilla,
Colombia for a customer in the Dominican Republic at Rio Haina and was
supposed to arrive there on the 6th February. As the vessel did not reach
its destination and the customer had heard nothing from the vessel or
owners, they got mighty worried and/or suspicious and contacted Interpol.
Being coppers,
Interpol just got suspicious.
They sent out an advisory to the effect the ship had stole the cargo and
was heading for Guyana with it and as a matter of urgency they wished to
contact the ship's captain, owner and ship managers. Also no port was to
discharge the cargo.
Guyana's Stabroek News say they were contacted by the owners BK
International and told the vessel had returned to Guyana on the 12th not
because she was thieving oil but because her crew had threatened mutiny as
they has all gone down with the chicken pox!
So the poor pox riddled vessel has wallowed at anchor, full of oil, full
of unhappy sailors and in dire need of a fumigation.
One wonders if Interpol are in any rush to make contact now!
(Above photo of vessel as HORIZON MONTREAL found on the Hederline
website)
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