A MARITIME lawyer appointed by the UAE-based registered owner of Russia-linked, dark fleet tanker Eagle S (IMO: 9329760) today applied to the Helsinki District Court to overturn a seizure order that detained the ship in Finland, saying it was not equipped to remain in icy Baltic conditions. 

Maritime lawyer Herman Ljungberg told Lloyd’s List that he represented Caravella LLC FZ, the registered owner of the Cook Islands-flagged panamax tanker accused of cutting the undersea cable of Estlink 2 and four other communications cables on Christmas Day.

With the caveat that Finnish authorities had placed some restrictions on what he could say, Ljungberg said in a phone interview that huge efforts were needed to keep the tanker safe and secure in its current location. 

“My instructions do not come from Russia,” Ljungberg said. “I just want to fix this problem. We have a tanker in the Finnish archipelago now seized and I think it’s in everybody’s interest to let her [Eagle S] sail away to her destination.

“The vessel is not built for winter conditions, the ice is coming now and I’m afraid it will cause huge problems. Who will take care of the vessel and cargo?”

Ljungberg has not been cleared to visit the ship, seized in an operation involving Finnish police, coast guard and navy shortly after the Christmas Day incident when Eagle S dragged its anchor over the submarine cable supplying electricity to Estonia from Finland.

The ship is now under naval and police guard after being escorted to the inner anchorage of Svartbäck in the Gulf of Scöldvik on December 29 with a missing anchor, for further investigation. 

Police said the National Bureau of Investigation, which seized the vessel, is leading a criminal investigation into suspected aggravated criminal mischief.

On Sunday, police disclosed that underwater investigations revealed drag marks left by the 20-year-old, anonymously owned tanker on the seabed for “dozens of kilometres”. 

This is the third merchant vessel in 14 months accused of sabotaging undersea cables in the Baltic affecting Nato members and the first to be impounded by authorities.

Lloyd’s List exclusively revealed last week that Eagle S, along with a related tanker, UK-sanctioned Swiftsea Rider (IMO: 9318539), had been fitted with listening and receiving devices to spy on Nato naval ships and aircraft, citing a source providing commercial services to the vessel as recently as seven months ago.

Eagle S is not an ice-strengthened vessel, lacking additional steel to withstand icy waters seen in the Arctic and the Baltic Sea during winter.

Ljungberg told Lloyd’s List the crew were interrogated by police on board the vessel without being offered legal assistance. Ljungberg has not been able to board the vessel but has spoken to some of the crew by phone and could not comment on the condition of the ship. There were at least 20 on board of Indian and Georgian nationalities, police have previously said. 

“The state should be very thankful that the crew is on board the ship and is able to take care of the vessel,” Ljungberg said.

The court application was submitted this morning asking urgently for the order to be lifted and the ship to be allowed to sail. Ljungberg said he did not know when a decision would be made.

Eagle S was laden with unleaded gasoline loaded at the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga on December 23, based on information compiled from vessel-tracking and Finland police.

Lloyd’s List revealed in July that Eagle S changed classification societies mid-voyage to the Indian Register of Shipping to avoid an unscheduled survey into its condition after a tanker vetting report in waters off Skaagen in Denmark in June revealed many deficiencies that compromised the environment and crew safety.

The tanker is part of a cluster of some 30 anonymously owned, elderly tankers connected to three shipmanagement companies in India and Dubai, including two sanctioned a year ago by the UK that have subsequently disbanded. 

Eighteen have since been sanctioned by US, UK or EU regulators for facilitating sanctions-circumventing oil trades that facilitate and fund Russia’s war on Ukraine.

More than $750m was spent between 2022 and 2023 to purchase 26 tankers via bareboat chartering arrangements through Eiger Shipping, the shipping arm of Russian oil trader Litasco, according to the Financial Times.

Carvella has a basic website with no contact details with an address at a business centre of The Meydan hotel in Dubai. The phone number of the vessel’s shipmanger, Mumbai-based Peninsular Maritime India Private Limited, is no longer answering. The company manages eight of the 26 related vessels in the dark fleet cluster including one sanctioned by the EU, Marabella Sun (IMO: 9323376), on December 17.