The Sam Ratulangi PB 1600 vessel, missing for nine years, was found drifting off the coast of Myanmar, without crew or cargo. Upon inspection, authorities found only five curious fishermen on board.
Police discovered broken cables at the bow, which led them to track a tugboat named Independence, located 80 km off the coast. The crew confessed they had been towing the vessel to a scrapyard in Bangladesh, but bad weather snapped the cables, forcing them to abandon it.
Thus, the mystery of the “ghost ship” was solved — it was actually a ship in transit to be dismantled, left adrift by a storm.
