2 cargo ships collide off German coast; at least 1 sailor dead, 4 missing

BERLIN — Two cargo ships collided in the North Sea off the coast of Germany on Tuesday and one of them sank, German authorities said. At least one sailor died and rescuers were trying to find another four.

The vessels collided shortly before 5 a.m. about 14 miles southwest of the island of Helgoland, Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said. The site of the collision was about 19 miles northeast of Langeoog island, which is just off the German mainland.

The British-flagged Verity, which had seven people on board and was en route from Bremen, Germany to the English port of Immingham, sank shortly after the collision. A signal from the ship was lost at about 5:20 a.m., suggesting that it had already gone down, and wreckage was found.

Two sailors were rescued. The body of one man was recovered, while four were still missing, the emergency command said.

“We are now doing everything humanly possible to rescue more people alive,” the head of the emergency command, Robby Renner, said at a news conference in Cuxhaven.

The water temperature at the time of the accident was about 54 degrees, which experience shows people can survive for about 20 hours, said Michael Ippich of the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service.

Several rescue ships and aircraft taking part in the search hadn’t located the missing crew members by mid-afternoon. Rescuers were considering the possibility that they were still inside the Verity, and planned to send divers down to the wreck at a depth of about 98 feet to check whether there are any signs of life, Renner said.

“The conditions on the spot are extremely difficult,” he said. “Because of the weather and visibility under water, it’s incredibly difficult to conduct such an operation.”

The Verity was 299 feet long and 46 feet wide. It was carrying steel coils, according to Renner.

The other, bigger ship — the Bahamas-flagged Polesie — remained afloat and had 22 people on board. None of them was believed to be injured. The vessel was heading from Hamburg to A Coruña, Spain. The Polesie is 623 feet long and 95 feet wide.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision.

Vessels supporting the rescue effort included a cruise ship, the Iona, that was en route from Hamburg to Rotterdam and had doctors on board.