Mysterious abandoned ghost ship washes ashore in West Africa

An empty oil tanker mysteriously beached on Liberia has left authorities baffled as the government struggles to determine the fate of the crew.

Discovered on May 4 on a beach in Robertsport, in the country’s far north-west, the 63-metre tanker, Tamaya 1, was last seen on Aprill 22 after leaving its registered port in Panama.

With the vessel’s last known location far outside pirate waters, authorities are struggling to determine why the crew would have abandoned the ship.

The Liberian maritime authority could only speculate as to why the ship was empty, however evidence of a fire in the captain's quarters supported the theory of foul play.

"Our best bet is that the vessel’s owner might have gone broke and had no money to pay crew members,” a port authority spokeperson told the Liberian Daily Observer. "Therefore, the crew abandoned the ship."

The Liberian government has been criticised for taking more than two days to realise the massive ship had run aground on the Robertsport beach

By the time authorities established a perimeter the vessel had been looted and vandalised by locals.

Once highly sought by pirates, oil tankers have become less desirable targets due to the lowered costs of crude oil and the heavy naval presence off the African coast.