A ghost ship, crewed by cannibal rats, is reported to be heading towards the British Isles. Really? Well, the mystery of the Lyubov Orlova cruise liner has become a news story that has been circulating online and splashed in newspapers. Just imagine it: a shadowy vessel silently docking in the dark of night, while cat-sized killer pirate rodents descend and scurry around our cities, brandishing their fangs ready to gnaw at your bones – yes it's the stuff of nightmares. And with each new headline the rats have become bigger and bigger, so to speak. We relish the opportunity to tell a good ghost story, don't we? But is it true?

Chris Reynolds, director of the Irish Coast Guard, chuckles and says, "The problem you have now is that you can't prove something you don't know." It all began when the Yugoslavian-built ship – named in 1976 after a Russian actor – was abandoned for two years in a Newfoundland port after its owners were embroiled in a debt dispute. It was meant to be sold for scrap, at a value of around £600,000, to the Dominican Republic. But its tow-line broke loose on what was to be its final journey and it has been drifting in the Atlantic ever since. The reason why there's such a fuss is that an abandoned 4,000 tonne ship can be hazardous for other cruise liners and tankers in the sea, especially when it's dark, and it could also get tangled in oil rigs.

Reynolds explains that the Irish Coast Guard was alerted about the possibility of an abandoned ship heading its way and that in March 2013 the emergency beacons were alerted, which sent a signal to the coast guards. To repeat: that was early last year.

"We had a three-month drift prediction project using satellites and radar images trying to locate the ship, and did some modelling which showed that it could be heading to Norway or the south of England. But the ship had its transmitting monitors turned off. So you can't be 100% sure. We couldn't find it and there was no value to keep on searching. But we have to keep vigilant." So, this seems to be the only bit of evidence that the ship is on its way? Right. Also, with storms in the Atlantic, Reynolds now explains that he expects and hopes that the ship has sunk or has been pushed back on to rocks. If that's not enough, a spokesperson for the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: "We have received no reported sightings of the vessel since April last year, but we will respond accordingly." OK, so that's sorted.

What about the cannibal rats on this ship though? It's reminiscent of the scene in Skyfall when ultimate villain Raoul Silva – his blond hair slicked back – toys with Bond, and recounts his childhood tale of how his grandmother taught him how to turn rats that had arrived on the island in fishing boats into killer rodents.

In response to the story, Dr Penny Hawkins, RSPCA senior scientific officer, explains that: "Rats have a really bad press and this doesn't help. These are animals that actually respond to one another in social distress." Hawkins adds that if this did happen on the ship with no food, "then it was in response to a highly stressful situation, even if it is very unrealistic. They are no more inclined to eat one another than humans."

So where did this whole story come from anyway? It was first mentioned last year in the Irish Independent, when Reynolds is quoted as saying: "The ship was alongside the harbour in Newfoundland so we assume there are rats on board, and that's a biohazard." He added: "We don't want rats from foreign ships coming on to Irish soil. If it came and broke up on shore, I'm sure local people wouldn't be very happy about it." So, there you have it: a single source can lead to a story going viral. Oh, and you can now follow the ship being lonesome on Twitter.