The Tamaya 1, a 64-metre long oil tanker registered in Panama, disappeared off the face of the Earth end of April after all contact was lost with its crew. But now the investigation has intensified after the large vessel built-in 1980 was found by locals on the coast of Liberia in west Africa.
The boat had last been recorded near Gambia and Senegal, far north of Liberia, and should have headed with its cargo to the port of Dakar in Senegal.
Investigators are now struggling to work out what may have happened to them, but there have been local reports police initially failed to carry out enquiries for a number of days.
One theory is the owner may have become insolvent and failed to pay the crew, so they simply abandoned ship. But the seas in the region are also notorious for pirates, leading to speculation the crew may have been kidnapped or worse, or a fire broke out.