Mystery Vessel Washed Up On The Island Of Tiree

A "mystery vessel" has washed up on the island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides off the West coast of Scotland.

It looks to be a WaveGlider, which are autonomous vessels used by the US and British navies, but it has not been claimed.

Tiree is open to the Atlantic to the West, so the vessel may well have travelled across the Atlantic from the USA or Canada or may have come from closer to home.

As the RIN has links to the international research communities, perhaps a RIN member might be able to identify it? If you know more let us know in the comments!

*Update 26 Oct 2020:

A summary of the info received from RIN members is as follows:

Many members of the RIN have kindly replied with helpful information about the vessel.
The vessel has been identified as a Wave Glider autonomous vessel, made by the company Liquid Robotics, who are a division of the Boeing company in the USA. Their website is at : https://www.liquid-robotics.com/

The Wave Glider is 3.05 metres long and uses wave motion on a wing suspended some 8 metres below it to power it at speeds of up to 1.3 knots. In addition it has solar panels on the topside to produce electricity to power the payload that it is carrying. The payload carried varies according to the mission chosen and can include an AIS receiver, camera, hydrophones, scientific sensors, satellite communications and much more. The vessel can be both initially programmed and also programmed in real time and accessed by using satellite/3G/WiFi communications. Examples of sensors and missions are shown on the manufacturer's website. It is typically used by both the US and UK Navies and by various government organisations. Naval versions tend to be painted black or grey and civilian versions painted yellow or orange. Typical cost for the vessel has been stated as 300,000 US Dollars.

A number of these vessels have been found washed up recently, as follows.
Isle of Tiree - October 2020
Unst, Shetland Isles - 2020
Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides - 2019
Donnegal, Ireland - 2019

Due to the sensitive nature of some of the missions that these vessels are engaged on (surveillance etc.) the information about the owner is often not available. Liquid Robotics have been contacted about the above vessels and they have replied as follows: "In each of these cases the customer has been notified , but beyond that we do not comment on customer missions or vehicles without their permission".

Further links to news items about these vessels are as follows:

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/mysterious-autonomous-boat-drifts-ashore-on-isle-of-tiree-scotland

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/unmanned-spy-vessel-washes-up-in-scotland/

https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/regional/liquid-robotics-forges-strong-uk-links-drone-sector/