Four Dead, Seven Missing As Two Vessels Collide

Rescuers said yesterday that hopes were fading of finding seven crew members lost after the car carrier Baltic Ace sank in the North Sea after a collision with the containership Corus J Wednesday night.
 Four members of the crew of the Baltic Ace are known to have died and as the search resumed this morning, rescuers said the chance of survival in the icy waters was virtually nil.

Rescuers said yesterday that hopes were fading of finding seven crew members lost after the car carrier Baltic Ace sank in the North Sea after a collision with the containership Corus J Wednesday night.
 Four members of the crew of the Baltic Ace are known to have died and as the search resumed this morning, rescuers said the chance of survival in the icy waters was virtually nil.
 The 3,000-car capacity Baltic Ace, with a crew of 24, was heading with a cargo of cars from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge to Kotka in Finland, while the 630teu Corvus J was on its way from Grangemouth in Scotland to Antwerp, Belgium.
The boxship was badly damaged but not in danger of sinking. Its 12-man crew was unharmed and had assisted in the search for the missing seafarers from the car carrier.
Thirteen crew members from Baltic Ace were rescued, according to the Dutch coastguard. Some were picked up from four life rafts and airlifted by helicopters to local hospitals.
A spokesman said they were suffering from shock and hypothermia, but not in any danger.
  The cause of the collision is not known.
 The shipping lane where the accident happened is one of the busiest in the North Sea and an important passing point for ships sailing into Rotterdam port, Europe’s largest and the fifth-largest in the world.
A spokesman said the chance of finding anyone alive was "virtually zero" and the search has been called off.
The accident took place off the coast of Belgium and the Netherlands, after the Baltic Ace sailed from Zeebrugge.
The search for the missing crew resumed at dawn. The coastguard said a helicopter crew saw the lifeless body of one man floating in the water.
Spokesman Peter Westenberg said three boats from the Royal Dutch Sea Rescue Organisation, two navy vessels, four helicopters and one coastguard aircraft had been used in the rescue. Strong winds and high seas made search conditions difficult.
The Polish embassy in the Netherlands has said that 11 of the 24 crew were from Poland. Six of them, including the captain, have been rescued.
The rest of the crew came from the Philippines, Ukraine and Bulgaria.
Dutch coastguard vessels searched for the missing crew late into the night on Wednesday
The 148-metre (485-foot) Baltic Ace was sailing under a Bahamas flag and carrying cars from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Kotka in Finland.
Its 24 crew abandoned ship as it sank quickly after colliding with the Cyprus-registered container ship, the Corvus J, sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to the Belgian port of Antwerp.
The 134-metre Corvus J is said to be damaged but not in danger of sinking. All 12 crew members are still on board.
The managers of the Baltic Ace said he thought human error was to blame for the collision, which occurred at 18:15 GMT on Wednesday..
Panagiootis Kakoliris, operations manager at Stamco Ship Management, told the Reuters news agency that the ship was carrying 1,400 Mitsubishi cars.
The shipping lane where the accident happened is one of the busiest in the North Sea, about 100km (60 miles) from Europe's busiest port, Rotterdam.
But a spokesman for the port said its activities would not be affected by the collision.