Blue Atlantic update

Remember the Blue Atlantic? She was seized in Liberian territorial waters by the French Navy at the beginning of the year carrying half a billion dollars worth of cocaine, and has since been moored across the dock from us with a police guard. Today one of the policeman on duty told me that the ship, now owned by the Government of Liberia, will soon be going into dry-dock in Senegal for a $1m refit, and will then be sailing as the first ship in Liberia's new merchant navy, and will probably spend the rest of her days carrying supplies up and down Liberia's coast. Meanwhile, rumour has it that the US Government is in the process of donating three or four of their old coastguard boats to Liberia's currently dormant Coastguard, so the country's waters can be patrolled for revenue protection against foreign fishing fleets, and to try to prevent this scale of drugs smuggling again. Olly

Photo of the Blue Atlantic in the Freeport of Monrovia after she was seized in January 2008, with UN Nepalese Police on guard duty.