After two cargo ships collided in the North Sea near Heligoland, the search for the four missing sailors has been discontinued. A spokesman for the accident command in Cuxhaven said this on Wednesday morning. The weather conditions deteriorated slightly during the night. Deutschlandfunk had previously reported on the end of the search.
Two sailors from the “Verity” were rescued from the North Sea by emergency services after the collision with the freighter “Polesie”. One sailor could only be rescued dead. The 22 crew members of the “Polesie” remained uninjured.
The accident occurred on Tuesday morning around 22 kilometers southwest of the offshore island of Heligoland and 31 kilometers northeast of the East Frisian island of Langeoog. How this came about is still unclear.
Several sea rescue cruisers from the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked Persons (DGzRS) and other official ships searched for the missing people.
According to the accident command, the 91 meter long “Verity”, which was flying the British flag, was loaded with so-called steel coils, i.e. rolls made of large sheets of metal. The ship from the British-Dutch shipping company Faversham Ships was on its way from Bremen to Immingham, a port on the English North Sea coast.
The other freighter, the larger “Polesie” with a length of 190 meters, was flying the Bahamas flag on its way from Hamburg to La Coruña in Spain. The freighter was able to return to Cuxhaven under its own power.
