A stranger story about shipping you are unlikely to read anytime soon. The Yugoslav-built Lyubov Orlova was an ice-class cruise ship on which Soviet Union-era holidaying apparatchiks toured the polar regions. Its last owners tried to continue to use it as cruise ship but abandoned it in Newfoundland, after which Canadian authorities arranged to have it towed to the Dominican Republic to be scrapped. However, the towline broke during a storm and the vessels became separated. Thus, a “ghost” ship has been floating around in the Atlantic for almost a year, with maritime authorities around the ocean worried it may wash up on their shores. So far, though, it has managed to evade all attempts to detect its position. For one reason or another, the story has gone viral in recent days – but this extensive report from The New Scientist is the definitive version.
