MOSCOW — The workaday cargo ship the Arctic Sea, which for decades plowed the world’s waterways in obscurity, had to disappear to be thrust into a swirling drama of rumors and intrigue.
The plot thickened Saturday as a Russian maritime expert reported signals from the ship’s tracking device and Finnish authorities said there was a ransom demand.
The signals from the Finnish-owned ship suddenly appeared in the Bay of Biscay off France, Mikhail Voitenko reported on his website Sovfrakht.
The French navy dismissed the claim, maintaining that the ship most likely was somewhere in the vicinity of Cape Verde — an island nation off the coast of Africa about 2,000 miles farther south. Widespread reports Friday also had placed the Russian-crewed ship near the island nation off West Africa, but officials later said it could not be confirmed.
The signal vanished after about an hour, and the device that transmitted it could have been removed from the Arctic Sea and placed on another vessel, Voitenko said.
“It’s very improbable that the Arctic Sea is now in the Bay of Biscay,” Voitenko told Associated Press Television News. It is thought that the ship last had radio contact there.
Later Saturday, Finnish authorities reported that the ship’s owners received a ransom demand. They gave no details on the amount demanded, the ship’s location or on the 15 crew members. Nor is there confirmation that anyone has seized the ship.
The ship, which its owners say is carrying an Algeria- bound load of timber, set sail from Finland on July 23.
