The East Cowes-owned cargo shop Verity has sunk, leaving one crew member dead and four others missing after a collision in the North Sea.
Owned by Faversham Shipping and manned by seven crew members, The Verity collided with the larger Bahamas-flagged bulk carrier Polesie about 12 nautical miles south-west of the German archipelago of Heligoland at around 5am on Tuesday.
The Polesie, 190m in length and 29m in width, stayed afloat and its 22 crew members uninjured, while the Verity, 91m by 14m, became submerged.
Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies, the search leaders, said two Verity sailors were rescued and taken to hospital, but the body of one crew member was recovered.
The Verity had departed from Bremen in Germany and was destined for the port of Immingham on the east coast of England.
On Tuesday afternoon, search leaders launched a diving operation to look for signs of life in the hull.
Officials confirmed the search was unsuccessful, hampered by strong currents, which made further attempts ‘impossible’.
After 8pm, the sea rescue cruisers of the German Society of the Rescue of Shipwrecked Persons began searching the area, alongside the German Navy’s NH90 ‘Sea Lion’ and ‘Sea King’ helicopters.
Thermal imaging cameras and night vision devices were used to support time nighttime search, with rescue teams continuing on until after midnight.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Central Command for Maritime Emergencies handed over command of the incident to another German authority after the search for the four missing crew members was discontinued.
The German Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation is now carrying out enquiries into the death of the Verity crew member in cooperation with the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Brand.
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