Cannibal rats causing alarm

The thought of rats turning to cannibalism after being left on an abandoned cruise liner floating in the north Atlantic has got the press into something of a flurry.

The thought of disease infested rats turning to cannibalism after being left on an abandoned cruise liner floating in the north Atlantic, and due to beach on a west country UK shore, has got the press into something of a flurry.

However, it is now thought that the Lyubov Orlova cruise liner – dubbed the ‘ghost ship’- which was heading towards British shores may have sunk.

The ship has been adrift ever since it broke loose en route to the scrap yard in the Dominican Republic. ‘Experts’ in the press say it was likely to still contain hundreds of carnivorous rats that have been eating each other to survive. All good stuff!

The Lyubov Orlova” sitting derelict at dockside in St John”s, Newfoundland and Labrador, October 2012 © Dan Conlin

The Lyubov Orlova cruise liner has been drifting across the Atlantic for nearly a year. About the only people happy at the thought of it arriving on a British beach are salvage hunters hoping to trace the 4,250-ton vessel valued at “1 million (£829,000) as scrap.

Built in Yugoslavia in 1976, the unlucky vessel was abandoned in a Canadian harbour in 2010 after its owners were embroiled in a debt scandal and did not pay the crew.

Newfoundland authorities attempted to sell the hull for scrap to the Dominican Republic, but cut their losses when it came loose in a storm on the way. The ship has been adrift ever since.