Remains of ghost ship 'wash up on beach'

The abandoned Lyubov Orlova has been missing since it cut adrift while being towed from Canada nearly a year ago. Photo / Wikipedia

A new documentary investigates the mysterious shipwreck which appeared off the Californian coast last year.

The Science Channel's What on Earth documentary series launched a probe into the mystery ship after investigators noticed that the ship was 295ft - the same length as the "cannibal rat-infested" Russian ghost ship Lyubov Orlova.

The 4,250-ton ship - which was built to carry 110 passengers - was impounded in Newfoundland in 2010 after being deserted by her crew over a debt row.

A new documentary investigates the mysterious shipwreck which appeared off the Californian coast last year. Photo / Wikimedia

The vessel was being towed to the Caribbean to be scrapped in 2013 when the line broke, leaving it lost at sea, reports the Daily Mail.

Experts say the ship was rumored to have been taken over by "hoards of cannibal rats".

Adventurers - who want to cash in on the ship's $800,000 value as scrap - do not believe she has sunk because the life-raft transmitters would have gone off.

But further research on the documentary suggested the ship was made of concrete - not metal - and other experts suggested it was one of the Mob's infamous gambling vessels from the 1930s.

The mafia-run ships were stationed in international waters and ran as floating casinos, brothels and speakeasys.

The ship is, in fact, the S.S. Monte Carlo which sank nearly 80 years ago but resurfaced in due February 2016 after a high tide.

S.S. Monte Carlo was stationed just a few miles off the Coronado coast when a powerful start set it adrift in 1937. It ran aground, was buried by sand and forgotten about until it emerged again last year.