Much more urgent response to additional cables damaged/cut today, 26Dec24.
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Finnish authorities have boarded and seized the tanker.
Archived link to NYT article, so no paywall.
Iâm mildly surprised Finland pokes the bear, but then i just finished reading about the russia/finland war just prior to ww2. The finns carried the day but I doubt Russia would goof it up as bad if there were a next time.
Reports that the tanker had surveillance equipment on board
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This picture shows the route and positions of the âEagle_Sâ when the power cable was damaged.
I do not know where the cable passes.
At left is the actual âprotectedâ anchorage, at right is the place of the bizarre maneuver.
This is the detail of this maneuver, with speed colors. It looks as they had to haul in an anchor or something elseâŠ
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The MarineTraffic video with the vesselâs heading and outline looks almost exactly like they hauled in the port side anchor at that point.
The power cable is east from that position where the speed started to drop and your screenshot has two data points/nodes/whatever next to each other. The cable was disconnected from the grid at 10:26 UTC.
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Just now:
The tanker âEagle_Sâ is entering the harbor of Porvoo, accompanied by two tugs and followed by the guard dog âUISKOâ, which stopped her off Helsinki.
Porvoo is Finlandâs largest crude and oil products port.
(Fifty years ago I spent a few days there on a private trip; a nice city.)
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Does that mean she was not in Finnish waters when boarded by FCG ?
If so : what waters she was in prior boarding?
ââ The Cook Islands-registered ship, named by authorities as the Eagle S, was boarded by a Finnish coast guard crew that took command and sailed the vessel to Finnish waters, a coast guard official said at a press conference.ââ
FCG took command?? . Wow , i would rather expect FCG " ORDERED " the vessel to proceed to a designated location and anchor there.
" nearly 70 percent of Russiaâs oil is being transported by so-called shadow tankers, according to an analysis published in October by the Kyiv School of Economics Institute, a Ukraine-based think tank. " . Think tank that is considered by western pundits as very reliable, independent , thrustworthy and objective source of information.
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The Finnish territorial waters in Gulf of Finland seem to be 6 NM off, while the western coast of Finland, in the Gulf of Bothnia, seems to have a 12 NM zone.
The shipping lane in the Gulf of Finland meanders between the two opposite 6 miles zones.
I do not know, but there could have been some form of understanding between the Soviets and Finland to leave the Soviets a free access from Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad) to the three Baltic Soviet Republics, to the Soviet exclave Kaliningrad and to the Soviet satellites Poland and East Germany, all on the Baltic Sea.
Iâm note aware of the wording of this possible âunderstandingâ.
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With my above comment I was rather "thinking " aloud asking myself some questions too. I am rather focusing now not on âwho did it and howâ but on the spooky wording of literally all the quoted above articles . More will follow as I am now slowly digesting the Lloyds List analitycal guru who wrote this piece , what seems to be blind copied by all other outlets. Cheers and good hunting 
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When the Finnish territorial waters were extended to 12 NM in the mid-1990s, it was agreed with Estonia to retain a six-mile strip of international waters between the two countries for practical reasons with a provision to extend the territorial waters up to the centerline at a later date.
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Still looking for the anchor, but the marks have been found.
It appears that a Chinese ship has just cut cables northwest of Taiwan.
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An article from Taiwan News (Not behind paywall):
Photo of âShun Xing 39â taken by Coast Guard patrol boat on Friday. (CGA photo)
Source: Taiwan Coast Guard says ship that allegedly cut cable crewed by Chinese | Taiwan News | Jan. 7, 2025 18:26
The mystery of two names for the same ship is hard to find any proof of.
Could it be that the âXiang Shun 39â had the name âShun Xiang 39â until April 2024?:
XINGSHUN39, General Cargo Ship - Details and current position - IMO 8358427 - VesselFinder (See History)
PS> Same IMO # Different MMIS# and Callsigns due to flag change)
Another ship, the âBao Shunâ has been chased away from the same area:
Taiwan ask S.Korea to assist in investigation:
Cable expected to be repaired by end Jan.:
Traficom inspectors observed 32 deficiencies during the port state control (PSC) inspection of the Eagle S. Three of the deficiencies were so serious that they led to the detention of the ship. The deficiencies concerned the shipâs fire safety, navigation equipment and pump room ventilation.
Can not find a source indicating the exact position Eagle S was ordered to stop and subsequently ordered to proceed to finnish teritorial waters by FCG which "took command " of thesaid vessel. Any idea???
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No, but they sometime do things that MAY look suspicious, like sailing back and forward for no known reasons in areas were there are pipeline, cables and close to were there are military installation.
PS> If this was a Russian affiliated ship it MAY have become world news:
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