Rescuers called off a search for 15 Filipino crewmen Tuesday, saying they likely died when their freighter capsized a day earlier in an icy Norwegian inlet. Three other seamen were confirmed dead, while 12 were rescued.
“There is no hope of finding survivors,” rescue leader Trygve Sveen told The Associated Press.
The MS Rocknes overturned in a narrow inlet between the island of Bjoroey and Norway’s western coast, less than 200 yards from land after it put out a distress call. The 30 crew members included 24 Filipinos, three Dutch, two Norwegians and one German.
The last three survivors were pulled through a hole cut in the ship’s bottom Monday night after being trapped for seven hours. Rescuers had communicated by passing notes to those trapped inside, and one Filipino crewman pleaded for urgent action.
On a scrap of battered paper, he had written in large blue letters, “Ok. But pls make fast,” adding that his shipmates were “dying.”
As the hours passed, “the notes got more and more dramatic,” said Leif Linde of the Bergen Fire Department. “In the end, we just had to cut through the hull.”
Searchers heard no noises overnight indicating anybody alive inside the hull, according to the Norwegian Rescue Coordination Center.
The 544-foot freighter, which was loaded with rock and headed for Emden, Germany, capsized in calm weather.
The cause of the accident hasn’t been determined, but surviving crewmen told the Bergens Tidende newspaper’s Internet edition that the ship had hit bottom or a shoal shortly before capsizing, possibly damaging the hull.
Salvage experts pumped air inside the MS Rocknes’ hull to keep it from sinking. It could be as late as Thursday before searchers enter the ship.
Experts placed containment booms around the wreck to prevent the freighter’s oil and diesel fuel from spreading. However, state radio said dead seabirds were already being found near the wreck, possibly from contamination.