A 21st Century ghost ship is the inspiration for an exhibition which opens today at Uilinn, the West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen. Artist and Sherkin Islander Majella O’Neill Collins became fascinated with the story of the MV Alta, the merchant vessel abandoned at sea 1,400 miles south of Bermuda in 2018 after engine failure when en route from Greece to Haiti. It drifted for 496 days over 2,300 nautical miles until washed ashore at Ballycotton during Storm Dennis in February 2020. Re-named 14 times with owners who are impossible to trace the ship remains unclaimed, unsalvaged and on the rocks. The sense of this vessel sailing along on relatively untroubled water, entering uncharted waters and eventually hitting a rock inspired the artist and led ultimately to the exhibition Allegory of the MV Alta. It continues until February 24.
