A ghost ship crewed by busking Dutch men and women remains at the heart of an international maritime mystery.
Having left Scotland almost two months ago, the vessel has still not been traced in the North Sea despite the involvement of authorities in four countries.
The 15-metre Warnow left Stonehaven on April 15 with a three-man Dutch crew and was believed to be sailing to Norway.
The alarm was raised on April 29 when Aberdeen’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency received a distress call from a Dutch national concerned for the crew.
The vessel originally sailed from Holland to Middlesborough with eight crew onboard, believed to all be Dutch. She then continued to Montrose, then Stonehaven, where five crew disembarked, before setting sail for Norway.
The boat, which is described as a steel-hulled, former pilot vessel with a black hull and white cabin, had been expected to arrive in Norway on April 22.
A spokesman for Aberdeen Coastguard said the investigation had passed to Norway after a mobile phone mast on an oil rig in the North Sea indicated that one of the crew’s mobile phones was in Norwegian waters.
Speaking exclusively to The Courier from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Stavanger, Norway, rescue coordinator Ola Vaage said their investigation had proved fruitless.
Mr Vaage, 55, said: “We worked on this three weeks ago and our investigations are now closed. The search is not continuing.“We worked on this case for over one week and found nothing.
“We had an aeroplane and rescue helicopters at the coastline and we sent a mayday relay to all the vessels in the North Sea to keep sharp lookout for the vessel.
“We searched the coastline from Lista to Maaloey, which is almost all of the west coast of Norway, and tried to track the mobile phones of the persons on board but we couldn’t find any trace of the boat.”
Mr Vaage said he informed the Scottish and Dutch authorities of the news and also alerted Iceland of the missing boat in case it drifted in that direction.
He added: “It is a mystery what happened.
“We conducted a thorough search of the North Sea and the coastline but nothing was found. It’s hard to say what happened though there was very bad weather at the start of May.”
The boat turned up at the Port of Montrose on April 9 without warning, with a report from a local man stating that a black plate at the foot of her mast bore a skull and crossbones.
Members of the crew, a mixture of men and women, are believed to have busked in the street in Montrose to earn cash for their continuing voyage.
They left Montrose the following day and had intended to visit Johnshaven but were advised by coastguards not to attempt it on the prevailing tide.
Instead they headed to Stonehaven, where they again busked to pay harbour dues. Although there was no port of registration painted on the boat’s hull, it is believed that the Warnow’s home port was Rotterdam.