On its current trip, the Baltic Whale is carrying some rather precious cargo: a fleet of rally trucks that will eventually be transferred to their new owner, a collector in Dubai who plans to put them on display.

All but one of the four trucks raced the 2024 Dakar Rally. The exception was Dakarspeed’s International Scania LoneStar, which competed in the 2025 edition and finished 17th in Truck with Maurik van den Heuvel. The truck was put up for sale in March before a deal was completed in June.

Aleš Loprais’ Praga V4S is the only non-Dutch truck of the bunch, complete with the livery and decals from his 2024 Dakar entry. Loprais finished second in Truck at the race, his final start for Praga. He then put the truck up for sale after joining IVECO and Team de Rooy for 2025.

Right behind Loprais at the 2024 Dakar was Mitchel van den Brink’s IVECO PowerStar, who placed a then-career best third. Two months later, Eurol Rally Sport put the PowerStar as well as his father Martin’s T-Way—which finished 19th—up for sale. The younger van den Brink switched to the new IVECO EVO 4 from MM Technology for the 2025 race, where he finished second. In an inverse from Loprais’ truck swap, van den Brink’s Dubai-bound PowerStar was built by Team de Rooy.

Igor Bouwens’ IVECO T-Way did not finish Dakar, retiring due to an engine failure. However, he rebounded by driving the T-Way to victory in its class at the Morocco Desert Challenge later in the year.

The Baltic Whale is an Antiguan-flagged container ship that typically delivers cargo between Rotterdam’s Waalhaven and Saint Petersburg. Currently, the ship is on its way to Russia before the trucks are unloaded and brought to their new home in the Emirates.

Paul Eikenbroek spotted the trucks on Wednesday while watching the ships go by the Scheur river from Maassluis.

Featured image credit: Paul Eikenbroek