I am tracking the whereabouts of a cargo ship. Said ship last reported a position which is used by http://www.vesselfinder.com on 14 April, when it was in the Red Sea. It is headed for Singapore and then to Hong Kong, so I presume it will have routed across the Indian Ocean, somewhere near Sir Lanka and will be heading down the Malacca Strait. Its recent position isn’t shown by the shipping line, or by (so far as I can see) any of the trackers I can find by googling.

That worried me a bit, but I can’t see any reports that anything has happened to it.

Then I had a quick look more generally. There is a huge gap on the map in the Indian Ocean and the Malacca Strait:

I am deeply sceptical that the South China Sea, the Malacca Strait and Eastern Indian Ocean are clear of cargo vessels.

Anyone know what’s going on?

(Vessel is the CMA CGM DALILA  if anyone is better at this than I am)

Looking at their about us they build the maps “utilising a large network of terrestrial AIS receivers all over the world”.

So only pick up stuff near land. You would need satellites for the rest.

That or the deep ones have finally risen in response to the pollution on the seas.

It appears to be just off the southern coast of Sri Lanka according to MarineTraffic

rachel

The FAQ on the AIS website says:

Why the vessel I am searching for is not visible on the map?

The vessel is likely out of range. AIS technology range is about 30-50 nautical miles offshore.

Does that fit with where it’s likely to be?  Since AIS depends on shore stations, not satellites, there are also black spots in areas where no shore stations have been set up.

It appears to be just off the southern coast of Sri Lanka according to MarineTraffic

Perfect! Thank you. 🙂

In the woods behind Nationwide?

Vessels sometimes turn off their trackers (or at least stop them being public) when passing Somalia to stop pirates locating them.

mmmmmmm

As Karn says and also for various other commercial reasons (though they really shouldn’t)

to stop pirates locating them

I wondered about that. There seems to be a fair bit of piracy in the Malacca Strait as well, so I wonder if they go private through that bit as well.

🙂

Why so worried?

Are you waiting for a Container full of Coke?

Your standard Malacca Strait pirate mainly take cash and crew belongings, however, there have been a few cases where the entire ship has disappeared and reappeared under another name and flag in some port in the South China Sea. These tend to be small oil tankers and not general cargo or container ships.

Your Somali pirates on the other hand are another kettle of fish and tend to hold the ship, cargo and crew ransom for big payouts or they will take a bigger vessel and use her as a mother-ship from where they will launch skiffs to carry out other attacks.

Are you waiting for a Container full of Coke?

LOL

Vessel is the CMA CGM DALILA  if anyone is better at this than I am

That is the vessel that is carrying an exclusive load Ken Dodd lookalike sex dolls, isn’t it?

Here ETA Singapore is 28th April 0630 LT /  ETD midday

ETA HK is 3rd May

some rough calcs she’s about a 1 1/2 days out of the North of Sumatra (if she is doing 14 knots as per some of the info out there)

ok I’m going back to work now as fun as this has been

The ship will have a satellite based tracker, but the company will normally choose to have this hidden.  Also, the satellite derived positions will normally mean having to have a paid sub to one of the tracker sites.

Once in range of a coast station it’ll pop up again.

The ship has to have it’s AIS turned on by law, but it’s details will often be reduced to the bare legal minimum for security reasons.  Turning off your AIS in the piracy prone areas actually makes it more difficult for the naval escort vessels to track you and come to your aid.

Piracy seems to be happening off the Nigerian coast, maybe they’re looking for an alternative to internet phishing scams:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/24/605179680/suspected-pirates-board-dutch-cargo-ship-off-nigeria-seize-crew

That is the vessel that is carrying an exclusive load Ken Dodd lookalike sex dolls, isn’t it?

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