ELIAS – IMO 7432305

later ALTA / ex AVANTIS I / AVANTIS II / POLAR TRADER / POMOR MURMAN / TANANGER

ELIAS was the name briefly carried by a Norwegian-built general cargo vessel whose later career became one of the most extraordinary “ghost ship” stories of modern European shipping.

Built in Norway in 1976 as TANANGER, the vessel subsequently operated as:

POMOR MURMAN

POLAR TRADER

AVANTIS II

AVANTIS I

and finally:

ELIAS.

After leaving Greek ownership, she became:

ALTA.

In 2018 the vessel suffered a catastrophic machinery failure during a voyage from Greece toward Haiti and was abandoned by her crew in the middle of the Atlantic.

Remarkably, the unmanned ship then drifted for approximately:

17–18 months

before finally washing ashore on the coast of:

County Cork, Ireland

during Storm Dennis in February 2020.

The wreck remains there today.

Vessel Details

Final Name: ALTA

Name in PiraeuShips Archive: ELIAS

Former Names: AVANTIS I, AVANTIS II, POLAR TRADER, POMOR MURMAN, TANANGER

IMO: 7432305

Type: General Cargo Vessel

Final Flag: Tanzania

Built: 1976

Builder: Trønderverftet, Hommelvik, Norway

Yard Number: 28

Launched: 17 March 1976

Length Overall: 77.32 m

Beam: 12.53 m

Gross Tonnage: 2,295 GT

Deadweight: 1,640 t

Main Engine: Normo diesel

Historical Power: approx. 1,655 kW / 2,250 hp

Historical Speed: approx. 12 knots

Final Operational Status: Total loss / wreck

Current Location: Ballyandreen Bay near Ballycotton, County Cork, Ireland.

Built as TANANGER

The vessel entered service in:

1976

under the Norwegian name:

TANANGER.

She initially operated as a conventional small northern European general cargo vessel.

Multiple Identities

The vessel subsequently became:

POMOR MURMAN

and then:

POLAR TRADER.

In:

2000

she entered a long Greek chapter under the name:

AVANTIS II.

She later became:

AVANTIS I

before taking the name:

ELIAS.

Greek Career

As AVANTIS II and AVANTIS I, the ship was:

Greek flagged

and associated with Greek shipping interests.

Piraeus and other Greek ports became familiar parts of her operating history.

The vessel was eventually sold abroad and became:

ELIAS, under Panama registry.

PiraeuShips in 2016

PiraeuShips published the dedicated:

ELIAS – IMO 7432305

entry in:

August 2016.

At the time the old profile recorded:

2,295 GT

1,640 DWT

1976 build

and construction at:

Trønderverftet, Norway.

At that stage nobody could have predicted what would happen only two years later.

ELIAS → ALTA

In:

2017

the ship was renamed:

ALTA.

She transferred to the:

Tanzania flag,

although the vessel was subsequently deleted from that register.

Final Voyage – Greece to Haiti

In:

September 2018

ALTA departed Greece for an ambitious voyage toward:

Haiti.

The planned arrival was late September.

During the Atlantic crossing, the vessel suffered serious machinery failure and became disabled.

Crew Abandoned the Ship

The crew remained with the disabled ship while efforts were made to provide assistance.

The U.S. Coast Guard delivered provisions during the incident.

Ultimately, the crew abandoned ALTA in:

October 2018.

The ship was left unmanned in the Atlantic.

The Ghost Ship

What happened next made ALTA internationally famous.

Instead of sinking, the unmanned vessel continued drifting across the Atlantic.

For months her exact position was unknown.

In:

August 2019

the Royal Navy's:

HMS PROTECTOR

unexpectedly encountered the abandoned vessel still afloat in the Atlantic.

Storm Dennis

The ghost ship continued its eastward drift.

On:

16 February 2020

during:

Storm Dennis,

ALTA finally came ashore near:

Ballycotton, County Cork, Ireland.

The vessel had travelled across the Atlantic without a crew for around a year and a half.

Total Loss

The official Irish casualty investigation classified the ship as:

Total Loss.

The wreck gradually deteriorated after grounding.

Storms eventually caused the hull to break into major sections.

Current Condition

The Irish Department of Transport continues to identify the remains as the:

MV ALTA wreck.

A health-and-safety assessment led to fencing, warning signs and other mitigation measures around the site.

By 2024 the vessel had broken into:

two major sections

and suffered extensive structural deterioration.

Authorities stated that there were no current plans for complete removal.

The wreck remains identifiable near Ballycotton in 2026.

PiraeuShips Record

ELIAS was recorded by PiraeuShips during a comparatively ordinary chapter in what would later become one of the most extraordinary final voyages of any ship in the archive. Built in Norway in 1976 as TANANGER, the vessel later traded as POMOR MURMAN, POLAR TRADER, AVANTIS II and AVANTIS I before becoming ELIAS. Renamed ALTA in 2017, she departed Greece for Haiti the following year but suffered machinery failure in the Atlantic and was ultimately abandoned by her crew. The unmanned ship then drifted across the ocean for approximately seventeen months before washing ashore near Ballycotton, Ireland, during Storm Dennis in February 2020. Today the heavily deteriorated wreck remains on the Irish coast. The PiraeuShips footage therefore preserves IMO 7432305 from the period before she became one of the world's best-known modern ghost ships.

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