martinschulz
Member
A friend of mine wrote me what happened:
Yes, the schooner Martha, built 1900, sank Sunday morning at 00:30. The story is:
She left Frederikshavn (on the top of the eastern side of the Danish main peninsula Jylland) Saturday morning 10 July bound for Svendborg (on the southern side of the Danish island Fyn). So her course should be more or less south.
The crew consisted of fifteen youngsters age 17-23, a mate age 21, and the captain age 58.
There had been given a gale warning, and when they left the wind was NW and W around 13 metres/second (Beaufort 6 / 22-27 knots) with gusts of 18 metres/second (Beaufort 8 / 34-40 knots).
Around 22:36 they reported on VHF that they had a leak, and they requested pumps. At that time they were 15 nm E of Jylland, and 8 nm SW of the island Anholt.
One SAR vessel from Grenå and two SAR vessels from the island Anholt went out with pumps. Also MS Hercules from the naval voluntary corps went out to assist.
At 23:54 the first pump was on board. At 00:11 Sunday morning all three SAR vessels had reached the ship, and Martha reported that the situation was under control. Towing was being prepared, and more pumps were taken on board. The crew was ordered to put on life jackets and survival suits (that's what it says on the SAR website, but I don‚t think that they had survival suits on board).
At 00:30 the engine stopped, and the ship started sinking. Very quickly she capsized, and a rescuer who was on board from on of the SAR vessels, ordered the crew of Martha up on the side of the hull. As the ship was sinking further (went down in 2 minutes) he ordered them to jump into the water. At that time the wind was around 15 metres/second (Beaufort 7 / 28-33 knots), and the waves were around 2 metres high. The water temperature was around 13 Celsius.
When the ship capsized the captain and a young woman age 18 were caught in the aft cabin and drowned. They were probably down there in order to communicate via VHF with the SAR vessels.
The fifteen people in the water were taken up by the small SAR vessels, but the waves were so high that it was not possible to transfer them to MS Hercules. So they had to sit in their wet clothes on the deck of the small SAR vessels being repeatedly washed over by waves for 3 hours while the SAR vessels were motoring towards Grenå (17 nm). They were in a very poor condition when they finally reached Grenå.
At the time of the sinking no one knew what had happened to the captain and the young woman so a helicopter and more navy vessels were sent out to search for them. They had the suspicion that the 2 missing people had been caught inside the ship, but not until around 14:00 the sea was so calm that it was possible to send down divers to check it out. Therefore the search went on until the divers found the bodies.
Martha sank on 15 metres of water. She is standing on her keel with the masts sticking up above the water. On photos one can see that the main sail is up. See:
http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/article.jhtml?articleID=184160
It is now being discussed if she should be raised in order to find out what happened, or if she should be blown to pieces with explosives (she sank close to one of the navigation routes and is a hazard to shipping).
Martha was owned by an association, and she was registered as a private yacht. All people on board were members of the association or of its "support circle". No one were professional seafarers, but most of them had long experience as yachts(wo)men. The captain had 22 years of experience with skippering Martha.
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Yes, the schooner Martha, built 1900, sank Sunday morning at 00:30. The story is:
She left Frederikshavn (on the top of the eastern side of the Danish main peninsula Jylland) Saturday morning 10 July bound for Svendborg (on the southern side of the Danish island Fyn). So her course should be more or less south.
The crew consisted of fifteen youngsters age 17-23, a mate age 21, and the captain age 58.
There had been given a gale warning, and when they left the wind was NW and W around 13 metres/second (Beaufort 6 / 22-27 knots) with gusts of 18 metres/second (Beaufort 8 / 34-40 knots).
Around 22:36 they reported on VHF that they had a leak, and they requested pumps. At that time they were 15 nm E of Jylland, and 8 nm SW of the island Anholt.
One SAR vessel from Grenå and two SAR vessels from the island Anholt went out with pumps. Also MS Hercules from the naval voluntary corps went out to assist.
At 23:54 the first pump was on board. At 00:11 Sunday morning all three SAR vessels had reached the ship, and Martha reported that the situation was under control. Towing was being prepared, and more pumps were taken on board. The crew was ordered to put on life jackets and survival suits (that's what it says on the SAR website, but I don‚t think that they had survival suits on board).
At 00:30 the engine stopped, and the ship started sinking. Very quickly she capsized, and a rescuer who was on board from on of the SAR vessels, ordered the crew of Martha up on the side of the hull. As the ship was sinking further (went down in 2 minutes) he ordered them to jump into the water. At that time the wind was around 15 metres/second (Beaufort 7 / 28-33 knots), and the waves were around 2 metres high. The water temperature was around 13 Celsius.
When the ship capsized the captain and a young woman age 18 were caught in the aft cabin and drowned. They were probably down there in order to communicate via VHF with the SAR vessels.
The fifteen people in the water were taken up by the small SAR vessels, but the waves were so high that it was not possible to transfer them to MS Hercules. So they had to sit in their wet clothes on the deck of the small SAR vessels being repeatedly washed over by waves for 3 hours while the SAR vessels were motoring towards Grenå (17 nm). They were in a very poor condition when they finally reached Grenå.
At the time of the sinking no one knew what had happened to the captain and the young woman so a helicopter and more navy vessels were sent out to search for them. They had the suspicion that the 2 missing people had been caught inside the ship, but not until around 14:00 the sea was so calm that it was possible to send down divers to check it out. Therefore the search went on until the divers found the bodies.
Martha sank on 15 metres of water. She is standing on her keel with the masts sticking up above the water. On photos one can see that the main sail is up. See:
http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/article.jhtml?articleID=184160
It is now being discussed if she should be raised in order to find out what happened, or if she should be blown to pieces with explosives (she sank close to one of the navigation routes and is a hazard to shipping).
Martha was owned by an association, and she was registered as a private yacht. All people on board were members of the association or of its "support circle". No one were professional seafarers, but most of them had long experience as yachts(wo)men. The captain had 22 years of experience with skippering Martha.
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