Sign up to FREE email alerts from Cork Beo - Daily Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

East Cork residents who've been wracking their brains over a maritime mystery finally have an explanation.

A lot of people in Cobh have been baffled after noticing something very unusual on the maritime traffic radar in the area.

For the past year a Swedish spy ship has been pinging its location from a bungalow in the Cork town.

The HSwMS Orion (A201) is actually situated somewhere in the Baltic Sea at the moment, but for some reason it can also be found on the map in Cobh.

The vessel, which supports the US National Security Agency, was launched in 1984 and is dedicated to gathering intelligence by covert means.

(Image: Wikipedia)

It wasn't commonly known why the it was also showing up at a Cork home until now.

CorkBeo contacted a number of people to try and find the answer including the Swedish Navy, Irish Defence Forces, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Justice, and Port of Cork.

Shortly after we received a phone call from someone who gave a detailed explanation - and it turns out there's a very simple and innocent reason for it.

The vessel is currently showing on the Marine Traffic app, but this app isn't used by maritime professionals and the ship doesn't show on their radars.

(Image: Marine Traffic)

Marine Traffic is used by the public so they can view what vessels are coming in and out of their area - but it isn't 100 percent accurate as people can make accounts and ping information themselves.

Those with smaller boats can register on it and use their phones as transponders, and in the case of the Swedish spy ship an interested hobbyist copied the ship's information onto his own account.

So now when you look at the app this huge vessel appears right on top of a bungalow in the town.

The Swedish Military later got in contact with CorkBeo to say this was also their understanding of the blip.

They said: "The vessel does not show on radars used by maritime professionals, only on an app called Marine Traffic that the public can view."