STORM Dennis washed up a ghost ship in Ireland after it had been drifting around the Atlantic and off the African coast for 17 months.

The Alta, a 77 metre Tanzanian-flagged cargo vessel, was found after the deadly storm battered Britain this weekend.

The ship had been adrift since the US Coast Guard rescued its crew of ten men 1,300 miles southeast of Bermuda in October 2018.

It was last spotted off the coast of West Africa and is thought to have made its way past Spain and across the west coast of England before washing up at Ballycotton, County Cork on Sunday.

A jogger spotted the ship when it washed up on an area of rocks around midday.

Ballycotton RNLI Lifeboat chief John Tattan told The Irish Examiner: "This is one in a million.

"It has come all the way up from the African coast, west of the Spanish coast, west of the English coast and up to the Irish coast.

"I have never, ever seen anything abandoned like that before."

In October 2018, the Alta, which had been without power for 20 days, was airdropped supplies by the US Coast Guard while drifting 1,380 miles southeast of Bermuda.

According to the coast guard, the 77 metre cargo ship was en route from Greece to Haiti before it was abandoned.

In September last year, the Royal Navy's HMS Protector spotted the ship in the mid-Atlantic.

It said on Twitter at the time: "We closed the vessel to make contact and offer our assistance, but no one replied!

"Whilst investigations continue we're unable to give you more details on this strange event."

A spokesman for the Waterford Coast Guard said the boat was not polluting the environment.

However, it is feared the ship could be taken back out to sea by the high tide, if it is not well enough secured.

Engineers from Cork County Council are due to conduct pollution assessments on the ship.

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