Rats head for Britain

Abandoned cruise ship filled with cannibal rats headed for British shore

The Lyubov Orlova has been detected off the coast of Scotland. Its only passengers are demented, disease-ridden rats feeding off each other.

NY Daily News

23 January, 2014

An abandoned cruise liner teeming with inbred cannibal rats is adrift in the Atlantic Ocean and possibly about to run aground on Britain’s coastline, according to a new report.

The Lyubov Orlova has been drifting east from Canadian waters since last year.

Newly detected beacons off the dilapidated vessel’s rescue boats indicate it is was recently off the west coast of Scotland, raising concerns it could run ashore there, along the west coast of Ireland or the southern tip of England, according to The Sun.

Salvage hunters are keen to find the dilapidated 300-foot ghost ship that can carry 110 passengers because it is estimated to be worth nearly $1 million.

But once aboard, the scrappers will face unimaginable horror: a demented, disease-ridden population of rats that have been feeding on each other and breeding.

"There will be a lot of rats, and they eat each other,” Belgian-based salvage hunter Pim de Rhoodes told the tabloid. “If I get aboard, I'll have to lace everywhere with poison."

The ship was built in 1976 and primarily toured Antarctic waters. It was abandoned in a Canadian harbor in Sept. 2010 by its indebted owners.

In January of last year it was sold to the Dominican Republic for scrap, but the tow line broke while en route. After harnessing the ship again, the Canadian government elected to cut it loose in international waters, saying it posed no threat to other vessels or offshore oil drilling platforms.

But the Irish coast guard chief Chris Reynolds said the danger is real.

“There have been huge storms in recent months, but it takes a lot to sink a vessel as big as that,” he told The Sun. “We must stay vigilant.”