February 9, 2026
Ghost ships, real rage
The shadowy world of abandoned oil tankers
Ghost fleets, unpaid crews, and a comment section on fire
TLDR: Abandoned oil ships have surged to 410 last year, with thousands of unpaid sailors stuck on “shadow fleet” tankers dodging sanctions. Commenters blasted the chaos of global shipping, argued sanctions punish workers more than regimes, and cracked jokes about “flags of convenience” and missing North Korea.
An abandoned tanker with $50m of Russian crude sits offshore while its crew goes hungry; the union ITF sent water and back pay. The crowd read it like a thriller—and then yelled “called it.” Strongest mood: shady business meets geopolitical chaos. Abandonments exploded to 410 in 2025, with 6,223 sailors hit; 82% flew “flags of convenience” (FOC—register in lax countries). Commenters sketched ghost fleets dodging sanctions for Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, while workers eat the fallout. Gambia’s sudden jump from zero to 35 tankers got major side‑eye as a paper home for mystery owners.
Drama split the thread: cynics shrugged—“the ocean is a chaotic jungle”—while others demanded real oversight and port accountability. Environmental doomers tied it to ship‑breaking, sharing The toxic tide of ship breaking and the HN thread. A hot take claimed abandonment is the oil playbook, citing shell‑company bankruptcies in the US via ProPublica. One voice yelled “Nothing about North Korea??” turning sanctions chat into a naming debate. Jokes flew: FOC = “Forget Our Crew,” “ghost ships” as the ocean’s HR nightmare, and “Shadow Fleet Prime—free shipping, no insurance.” The mood? Furious, cynical, weirdly funny—and deeply concerned for the sailors left waiting.
Key Points
- •ITF reports global ship abandonments rose from 20 in 2016 to 410 in 2025, affecting 6,223 seafarers, up by nearly a third over 2024.
- •An oil tanker with ~750,000 barrels of Russian crude is abandoned near China; crew faced non-payment and shortages before ITF secured back pay and supplies.
- •Shadow fleets—aging, likely uninsured vessels with obscure ownership—are used to evade sanctions and may be driving the spike in abandonments.
- •Flags of convenience dominate: 337 abandoned ships (82%) in 2025 were FOC-registered; Panama, Liberia, and Marshall Islands account for 46.5% of merchant tonnage.
- •Gambia rapidly grew as a registry host, from zero oil tankers in 2023 to 35 by March the following year; India pledged to end purchases of Russian crude under a US deal.