The German Maritime Rescue Service announced on Wednesday that the search in the North Sea in the area of the cargo ship that sank after a collision with another ship had ended; the number remains unchanged at one dead, four missing and two survivors.
• Also read: Collision between two cargo ships in the North Sea; 1 dead, 4 missing
The search for the sailors was “suspended in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday” and “will not be resumed” on Wednesday, the German Sea Rescue Service (DGzRS) said in a press release.
The numerous operational resources – ships and helicopters – searched the affected sea area again “completely” during the night, but this operation “did not produce any results” in difficult weather conditions, according to the same source.
At dawn on Tuesday morning, two cargo ships collided off the German coast, 22 km southwest of the island of Heligoland, for reasons that are still unclear.
Due to the shock, one of the two ships with seven crew members went aground. In the hours that followed, two were rescued and one was found dead. Four remain missing.
In addition to surface searches, sending divers to the wreckage of the sunken ship failed to locate the missing people on Tuesday.
The “Verity”, a 91 meter long cargo ship flying the British flag, sank to a depth of around 30 meters. It was loaded with steel and had around 1,300 m3 of fuel on board.
In view of this burden, “the measures surrounding the accident site will be decided by the rescue operations management in the morning,” says the press release.
The “Verity” had left the German port of Bremen and was on its way to Immingham, Great Britain.
The other cargo ship involved in the collision, the Polesie, docked in Cuxhaven, northwest Germany, at around 4 a.m. (2 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday after taking part in rescue operations the previous day.
The 190 meter long “Polesie” belongs to the Polish shipowner Polsteam and sails under the Bahamas flag. Before the accident, it was traveling from the German port of Hamburg to La Coruña, Spain, with 22 people on board.