MOSCOW — A Russian maritime Web site said the tracking system for a freighter missing since last month was broadcasting signals on Saturday from the Bay of Biscay, but French Marines said the signals were coming from Russian warships.

The contradictory claims deepened the mystery surrounding the ship, the Arctic Sea. On Friday, widespread reports suggested it may be in the vicinity of Cape Verde, off the coast of Africa some 2,000 miles south of the Bay of Biscay.

The respected Sovfrakht maritime site said the ship's signal appeared on a tracking service about 4:30 a.m. Saturday in the Bay of Biscay.

The site cautioned, however, that the Arctic Sea's Automatic Identification System equipment might not be on the ship itself anymore. The signal disappeared after about an hour, it said.

Hours later, French Marines spokesman Capt. Jerome Baroe said the signals in question had come from Russian warships that were heading from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea. Those ships apparently are different from the vessels that the Russian Navy dispatched this week to search for the Arctic Sea.

The freighter, carrying a load of timber, has been missing since July 28 after passing through the English Channel.