On Sept. 24, the Coast Guard found Mr. Archer and Mr. Zarabozo in the boat's life raft a few miles from the abandoned vessel and about 35 miles from Cuba.
The plight of the Lyubov Orlova has grabbed the imagination of the media with its tale of cannibal rats" aboard an abandoned vessel drifting in the north Atlantic -- possibly toward the U.K. On Thursday, reports surfaced that high winds could be pushing the vessel and its rats toward the shore of western Ireland, Scotland or the southern tip of England.
A key issue addressed is the need to establish the ownership of abandoned vessels.
Marina and maritime officials around the country say they believe, however, that most of the abandoned vessels cluttering their waters are fully paid for.
In January, the National Parks Service estimated that about 190 abandoned vessels — many of them small boats, apparently privately owned — had been left to rot in the 25,000 acres that make up Jamaica Bay.
The plight of the victims recently attracted international attention following the discovery of several abandoned vessels containing hundreds of starving Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees, which Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia all initially refused to allow ashore.
A friend who recently crossed the channel to Turkey said that skins of abandoned vessels pocked the sea between the two countries, even though the official ships have been keeping their distance from the vessels, to stop the passengers from bursting them, and more and more dinghies are arriving on the shore intact.
More than two decades after the infamous garbage barge of 1987 moored in Brooklyn after haplessly floating to six states and three foreign countries in search of a dump, barges and abandoned vessels are again trashing New York waterways, city and state officials said.
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 716 (introduced by Joe Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg), legislation that will allow law enforcement agencies to remove abandoned vessels from waterways, protecting California waters from deserted boat hazards after Jan . 1 2006.
The more complex salvage would cost about $10 million and might cause more damage than simply abandoning vessel and turtles to their fate.
After a few days at sea in October 1998, however, the engine failed and the smugglers abandoned the vessel.
