Irishman 'knew nothing' of ship

A director of an Irish company linked to the seizure of an explosives-laden ship off Greece at the weekend has said he knows nothing about the matter.

Mr Niall Brady, from Crosserlough, Co Cavan, said yesterday he was shocked to hear his name mentioned in connection with the Baltic Sky, which was laden with 700 tons of explosives when it was stormed by Greek police on Sunday.

Mr Brady (26) and Mr Pearse Christian McNulty (29) are listed as directors of Unithorn Ltd, which Lloyds List says manages the Baltic Sky.

However, Mr Brady said yesterday he was a just a "secondary director" and investor in Mr McNulty's company and knew nothing about the ships it operated or their cargoes.

He said he and several others had invested in the company after responding to advertisements in the business papers. However, he had received no return on his investment after more than a year. He says he has been unable to contact Mr McNulty for several months.

Mr McNulty, who has an address at Kiltycahill Co Sligo, could not be contacted yesterday. He is believed to be abroad with his young daughter; according to one report, they are in Turkey.

Bimco, the world's largest maritime organisation, says Mr McNulty and his father, Mr Pearse Patrick McNulty, have been the subject of business warnings for years.

Mr Ove Tvedt, the deputy general secretary of the organisation, told The Irish Times that Mr McNulty senior, who was in his seventies when he died last year, "consistently ran away from his obligations".

Bimco, based in Denmark, represents the owners of 65 per cent of world shipping.

Mr Tvedt declined to go into specifics, but said some of the cases went as far back as the mid-1960s. Bimco members had been advised not to do business with the McNultys, or to contact the organisation for advice before they did.

The Baltic Sky was carrying ammonia dynamite, which is used in mining, and was purportedly bound for Sudan when it was intercepted. The ship, described as a "rust bucket", is registered under a flag of convenience in the Comoros Islands. Its seven-man crew has been placed under arrest, pending investigation of the cargo.

Unithorn was incorporated at the Companies Registration Office in February 1999, and Mr McNulty junior and Mr Brady were appointed directors in January last year.

Yesterday, the Tunisian Interior Minister, Mr Hedi M'Henni, said the vessel left Tunisia's port of Gabes on May 13th and was due to berth on May 21st at Port Sudan. But the ship owners demanded payment of an extra $10,000, threatening to confiscate and resell the cargo, he said.

They had published an advertisement on the Internet on June 10th, offering the cargo for sale, he added.

Tunisian authorities had launched legal proceedings against the owners on June 13th for breach of trust.

The ship's papers said the cargo was intended for a firm called Integrated Chemicals and Development in Sudan but the Greek authorities said contacts so far with Sudan indicated there was no such company.

But in Sudan, officials who said they worked for the company said there was no sinister motive . "We have to make it clear, this stuff is purely for civilian uses," company director Mr Issam el-Khalifa told reporters.

Under its former name Sea Runner, the Baltic Sky called in several European ports, including Derry. It was detained last year for a time by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency.Following the failure of its then owners to pay commercial debts, it was acquired by Alfa Shipping last January.

According to Lloyd's List, Mr McNulty junior told maritime sources last year he was the majority owner of Alfa, which is registered in the Marshall Islands.