Eagle S, the Russia-linked tanker suspected of damaging an underwater electricity cable on Christmas Day, was kitted out with special transmitting and receiving devices that were used to monitor naval activity, according to Michelle Wiese Bockmann, an analyst for Lloyd’s List, citing a source with direct involvement in the ship. The vessel has since been detained by Finnish police.
The dark fleet tanker with links to Russia, Eagle S, seized by Finland on Dec. 25 for damaging an undersea cable, had transmitting and receiving devices installed that effectively allowed it to become a “spy ship” for Russia, Lloyd’s List has learned.
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The hi-tech equipment on board was abnormal for a merchant ship and consumed more power from the ship’s generator, leading to repeated blackouts, a source familiar with the vessel who provided commercial maritime services to it as recently as seven months ago.
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As well as Eagle S, another related tanker from the same ownership cluster, UK-sanctioned Swiftsea Rider, also had similar equipment installed, Lloyd’s List was told.
Lloyd’s List, one of the oldest publications still existing, providing shipping news in London as early as 1734, described the Cook Islands-flagged Eagle S and Honduras-flagged Swiftsea Rider as “two of 26 elderly Russia-linked tankers with opaque ownership structures connected to three related ship managers, including two sanctioned by the UK government 12 months ago for ‘propping up Putin’s war machine.’”
The sanctions-circumventing tankers were bought between 2022 and 2023 and placed under bareboat charter arrangements with Eiger Shipping, the shipping arm of Russia oil trader Litasco.
Eagle S was boarded by Finnish forces investigating sabotage of the Estlink 2 undersea cable that disrupted the supply of electricity to Estonia from Finland.
The tanker slowed and dragged its anchor around the cable around midday, Dec. 25, Finland’s police said. Another three cables were also damaged.
The hi-tech equipment on board was abnormal for a merchant ship.
The source, who declined to be identified to protect their safety, supplied at least 60 confidential documents about Eagle S to Lloyd’s List in June, including the vetting report that outlined many safety deficiencies discovered during an inspection undertaken while at anchor in Danish waters that month.
These documents, and others relating to dark fleet tankers providing confidential and private information about class, insurance, and flag, and other technical and regulatory requirements, were verified as genuine at the time, according to Lloyd’s List.
The source has since provided additional information, telling Lloyd’s List that an unauthorized person, who was not a seafarer, had been identified on board Eagle S.
They said listening and recording equipment was brought on to the 20-year-old tanker via “huge portable suitcases” along with “many laptops” that had keyboards for Turkish and Russian languages.
The equipment was kept on the bridge or in the “monkey island,” they told Lloyd’s List. The monkey island is the top-most place on the ship.
The transmitting and receiving devices were used to record all radio frequencies, and upon reaching Russia were offloaded for analysis.
“They were monitoring all NATO naval ships and aircraft,” Lloyd’s List was told. “They had all details on them. They were just matching their frequencies. Russian, Turkish and Indian radio officers were operating it.”
Eagle S also dropped “sensor-type devices” in the English Channel during a transit, they said.
They said no further equipment returned to the ship after it was offloaded for analysis, to their knowledge, but other devices were placed on another related tanker, Swiftsea Rider.
The damage to the Estlink 2 cable is the second time vital undersea cables between NATO allies have been damaged in two months, and the first time a commercial ship suspected of sabotage has been taken into custody by authorities.
The crew on Eagle S would have been aware of its spying activities “as this could not be hidden” but were “threatened with their life, so everybody kept quiet,” the source told Lloyd’s List. “They have replaced captains when they raised this issue,” they said.
The beneficial owners of Eagle S and Swiftsea Rider are hidden behind complex corporate structures. The registered owner of Eagle S is a single-ship structure that purports to have an office in the business center of a luxury hotel in Dubai.
The ship manager, Mumbai-based Peninsular Maritime India Private Limited cannot be contacted. One of the telephone numbers on its website did not answer. A second number hung up when asked if this was the phone number for Peninsular Maritime. Emails were not answered.
The company’s website claims the company be registered in England, signaling it is likely a copy-and-paste of a template, commonly found in dark fleet shipping companies.
* Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined in US State Department guidance issued in May 2020. The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.
The original article in Lloyd’s List was republished with the author’s permission and can be read here.
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