|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Claim: Social media activist Martin Kollie claims a ship that sank off the Indian coast is Liberian-flagged.
Verdict: True. Multiple credible news reports and information from global ship tracking databases confirm that the sunk vessel was flying the Liberia flag.
Full Text
On May 24, 2025, Liberian activist Martin Kollie posted a video on Facebook of a sinking cargo ship.
In the post, he claimed the video showed a Liberian-flagged container ship capsizing off the Indian Coast.
The post attracted nearly 260,000 views and over 3,000 reactions.
Martin’s post, however, attracted criticism, with some Liberians accusing him of sharing misinformation.
One commenter said: “Martin, when a ship is carrying the Liberian flag, it doesn’t mean the ship is a Liberian ship.”
Another commenter commented: “Martin K.N. Kollie, what do you want to achieve? Why are you providing misinformation?”
Mark Kulah, a media associate at the Liberian legislature and supporter of the incumbent Unity Party who commands a significant following online, also challenged the claim in a Facebook post describing the activist’s post as “fake” and “misleading” information.
He noted that the ship was not Liberia-flagged.
With the conflicting information, DUBAWA decided to fact-check if a ship had indeed capsized. There was also interest in checking whether or not a flag was attached to a capsized ship and what a flag stands for if it is hung on a boat.
Verification
Several good searches using keywords such as “Indian coast,” “ship,” and “capsized” produced several credible news reports that confirmed a ship had sunk off the Indian coast.
Media reports such as those from the BBC, the New Indian Express, and THE HINDU, confirmed the incident. The reports identified the affected ship as a Liberia-flagged container vessel.
The Hindu, for instance, gave additional details, including the ship’s identifier as ‘MSC ELSA 3.’
Using vesselfinder.com, a database for tracking ships, we found that the ship that had sunk off the Indian coast was indeed ‘MSC ELSA 3’ and it was duly registered as sailing under the Liberia flag.
Screenshot from vesselfinder.com
We also found that the Ministry of Defence of India, which confirmed the ship sinking incident, noted that the ship was a Liberian container ship.
What does it mean to have a flag on a ship?
Under Article 91 of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, Nationality of Ships, it states,
1. Every State shall fix the conditions for the grant of its nationality to ships, for the registration of ships in its territory, and for the right to fly its flag. Ships have the nationality of the State whose flag they are entitled to fly. There must exist a genuine link between the State and the ship.
Conclusion
Based on the above, Martin Kollie’s claim that a Liberia-flagged ship has sunk off the Indian coast is true.
