Upon our arrival with s/y Fanny to Suakin (Sawakin) I spotted a semi submerged coaster vessel on the side of the fairway. She seemed to have been anchored or stranded on the shore possibly after having been laid up or developing a critical leak when she called port. Whatever the reason there she was sitting seemingly abandoned.
As I was using our dinghy to putter around the port, I also decided to give the wreck a circling and as I got near to her it was obvious there was nobody onboard and the vessel was just breaking up there. One could easily see that she was a former coaster transformed into a livestock carrier by adding on top the cage like structure for animals.
Marzooqah K
I checked marinetraffic and found out that Marzooqah's last AIS ping had been in June 2018, (on other tracking websites as 2019). Her current registry was listed under the flag of Sierra Leone, I could not find anything online that she had been removed yet, so I assume the flag state was unaware of the state she is in. Her dimensions were listed as length overall 70m and breadth 11m, her gross tonnage 1187 and dead weight 1284t.
Submerged stern
As the stern was wholly submerged it was not possible to look down below. On the Captain's deck there was outside 2 massive gensets on deck, I suppose something to do with the live cargo, perhaps powering the ventilation and cooling. Only the engine blocks remained, perhaps the rest had been cannibalised for better use or sold to scrap.
The new and old name visible
I climbed onboard over the railing and decided to have a peek inside this old lady. The captain's cabin/ saloon had been totally ransacked of furniture; papers had been strewn all over the deck. Only built-in fixtures remained.
Superstructure
Then I climbed to the bridge that I found in same disarray as the deck below. Dust coated all the fixtures there, the radar looked original as well as the throttle controls and autopilot. Rudder had been taken to better use or maybe she was just controlled by tiller.
Aft "captains" deck gensets
Having nothing else to see I did not want to tarry, snapped a few quick pictures and retreated the same way I came. The outer decks looked a bit thin so did not want to take any chances there. All in all, a sad destiny for an old lady to fall apart abandoned. She could be possibly refloated and towed to a shipbreaker but considering the effort vs the total weight of scrap metal I don't think there would be much to gain in the enterprise, esp. if she was still in register with the Owners.
Captain's saloon/ cabin
Radar
Bridge
Throttle and telegram
Rudder post/ autopilot
Looking aft from bridge
She was built in 1967 by Schulte & Bruns schiffswerft in Emden, Germany, hull no 232. Originally, she had been launched as
Hildegard under German flag. Still today the
Schulte&Bruns is operating as shipping company (since 1882) with a large fleet of vessels offering various services for the shipping industry. Below one can see how she looked like when she was launched as "Hildegard" and then later trading as "Nanna" in the 1980's.
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