SBS Dateline | Ghost Ship

Dateline video journalist Nick Lazaredes has an international tale of intrigue that’s worthy of a spy novel…

It concerns a nondescript Maltese cargo vessel called the MV Arctic Sea, which was reportedly hijacked off Sweden and later disappeared.

But if it was really carrying nothing more than a load of Finnish timber, why was the Russian Navy sent to find it?

Could Israeli forces have intercepted it, concerned that weapons on board were being taken from Russia to the Middle East to be used against them?

And how did it end up off Cape Verde in West Africa, when it should have been heading for Algeria?

WATCH - Nick attempts to find the answers to this maritime mystery.

VIDEO EXTRA - Nick talks in more detail about the theories behind the Arctic Sea mystery to Online Producer Andrew Sainsbury.