The ''Jian Seng'' was an 80-metre tanker and

ghost ship A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a ship, vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a fictional ghostly vessel, such as the ''Flying Dutchman'', or a physical Flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict, derelict found adrift with its cre ...

of unknown origin that was spotted drifting 180 km south-west of

Weipa Weipa () is a coastal mining town in the local government area of Weipa Town in Queensland. It is one of the largest towns on the Cape York Peninsula. It exists because of the enormous bauxite deposits along the coast. The Port of Weipa is main ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

in the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

by an

Australian Coastwatch The Australian Coastal Surveillance Organisation, also known as Coastwatch, was an operational division of the Australian Customs Service and the de facto Australian coast guard service. The former Coastwatch Division is now part of the Austr ...

aeroplane in 2006. The ship was found inoperable and with no crew on board and a broken tow rope, with identifying marks removed, but no signs of illegal activity or violence. The coast guard was never able to determine the ship's origins, and scuttled it in deep waters.

Apprehension

Photographs of the ship were taken and analysed at the

Australian Customs Service The Australian Customs Service was an Australian Government agency responsible for Australian border protection, duties and taxes between 1985 and 2009. The Service was first under the portfolio of the Department of Industry, Technology and Com ...

, which dispatched a

patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval ship, naval vessel generally designed for Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence, Border control, border security, or law ...

immediately. The Australian Customs vessel ''Storm Bay'' arrived during the night and waited until morning before launching a tender to board the vessel, which was drifting in uncharted waters. There was no sign of recent human activity found aboard, nor any signs that it had been engaged in illegal activity such as

poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...

people smuggling People smuggling (also called human smuggling), under U.S. law, is "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries' laws, ...

. A spokesman for Australian Customs addressed the news media on 24 March 2006, stating that although they had been unable to obtain documentary evidence of its registration or origin port, materials recovered seemed to indicate the vessel was called the ''Jian Seng'', though the name and identifying features had been painted over. A large quantity of rice was found on board, leading the boarding party to believe the vessel had probably been used as a resupply ship for fishing boats with food and fuel in waters outside the Australian exclusive economic zone and which had broken tow and drifted to its current position. The boarding party asserted that the vessel had been adrift for an exceptionally long time before being found, and that the engines were inoperable and incapable of being restarted. They also reported that the boat was drifting slowly southwards. It had been extensively stripped, suggesting that it may have been on its way to a scrapyard when its towline broke. The ''Storm Bay'' monitored ''Jian Seng'' for several days before a decision was made to tow it to the nearest harbour. A

salvage tug A salvage tug, also known historically as a wrecking tug, is a specialized type of tugboat that is used to rescue ships that are in distress or in danger of sinking, or to salvage ships that have already sunk or run aground. Overview Few tugbo ...

towed the ship to Weipa, on Cape York, where oily water which posed an environmental hazard was removed. Since no owner of the ship could ever be located, it was towed to deep water on 21 April 2006 and

scuttled Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull, typically by its crew opening holes in its hull. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vesse ...

Political implications

Chris Ellison Chris Ellison may refer to: * Chris Ellison (actor) (born 1946), English actor * Chris Ellison (businessman) (born c. 1957), New Zealand entrepreneur * Chris Ellison (politician) Christopher Martin Ellison (born 15 June 1954) is an Australian ...

, Minister for Justice and Customs, claimed that the detection of this vessel illustrates the effectiveness of response in detection of ships breaching Australian borders, alleging it was detected in a remote stretch of Australian waters and photographed by a Customs airplane, which returned to base with the photos whilst a vessel was immediately dispatched. This was challenged by Senator Joseph William Ludwig, claiming that the extraordinary feat was the fact that it was not intercepted earlier, when one considers how far south it had entered into the gulf. The area in which it was found is notorious for illegal

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n fishing vessels and for people or

drug smuggling The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types ...

operations. Senator Ludwig alleged that Australian Customs had claimed this was a region they had specifically been targeting, and then asked how they can hope to intercept

illegal fishing Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries. Illegal fishing takes pl ...

boats when a massive tanker was missed for such a potentially long period of time.

Apprehension

Political implications

References

Further reading