Fishermen rescued by cruise ship in North Sea

westhinder

westhinder

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Cruise ship rescues 3 fishermen from North Sea; 2 missing

LONDON (AP) — The Pacific Princess cruise ship turned around Saturday in the North Sea to rescue three men in a lifeboat who had sent up a flare, according to an Associated Press journalist onboard the ship. Two other men from their capsized fishing boat were still missing.
The captain announced to the passengers that the ship, which was heading back to Dover after an eight-day cruise around the British Isles, was changing its course to rescue the men, who were floating in a black lifeboat with an orange cover, journalist Diana Heidgerd reported.
She said the rescue took place late Saturday afternoon in 6-foot (1.8-meter) seas off the coast of Norwich. Authorities on the ship maneuvered close to the lifeboat and pulled the men aboard.
Ship authorities would not comment on the identities or condition of the rescued men but said the U.K. coast guard had been notified.
Passengers saw a coast guard helicopter searching the water Saturday night for two missing crew members from a fishing boat that authorities said had capsized.
 
On the radio this morning there was a comment that it was a flare that was spotted, although that is not in the BBC article.
 
Update: it is a Belgian fishing boat that capsized yesterday afternoon. Three men in liferaft saved after they saw the cruise ship and set off a flare. Two men sadly still missing.
 
LittleSister said:
Pyrotechnics not redundant yet, then.
Click to expand...

But sadly two dead, who might have been saved (and all saved sooner) if the fishing boat had a float free EPIRB, or if a Handheld VHF and/or PLB had been in the liferaft or grab bag.
Certainly makes me think - no reason why one of our PLBs couldn’t be contained in the liferaft next service
 
dunedin said:
But sadly two dead, who might have been saved (and all saved sooner) if the fishing boat had a float free EPIRB, or if a Handheld VHF and/or PLB had been in the liferaft or grab bag.
Certainly makes me think - no reason why one of our PLBs couldn’t be contained in the liferaft next service
Click to expand...

I don't know Belgian regulations but I would think EPIRB would be required.

I was crew on a vessel that responded to an upturned, also Belgian trawler right at the western enterance to the Dover Straights TSS. A ship had called the coastguard and was trying to explain the situation in broken English, the coastguard was struggling to work out what was going on but we figured it out pretty quick (3 of the 4 crew ex fishermen and 3 RNLI crew) and headed at top speed to the position. We arrived on scene at the same time as the Lee On Solent helicopter to find a capsized trawler with 2 crew sat on the upturned hull. They had been there most of the night and not one ship had investigated the radar return until they were spotted in daylight. The car carrier that made the initial call were in the process of launching their FRB whilst running a search pattern as 2 of the crew were missing (1 slipped off the upturned hull and it turned out the other was trapped inside and drowned).

IIRC their life raft and EPIRB were tangled in the rigging.

I don't remember the year but it was either December 21st or 23rd as I remember thinking that their families' Christmas would never be the same again.

There are other things I do recall about that day but aren't suitable for a public forum other than I was extremely impressed by the speed of HMS Severn!

W.
 
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