AoS supports ship's crew who lost colleague overboard

Seafarers’ charity Apostleship of the Sea is supporting the crew of a cargo vessel whose colleague went overboard on the Humber River on Wednesday night (3rd September). The 18-year-old Indonesian seafarer was from the ship Freya which was bound for Immingham port.

AoS’ Immingham port chaplain Fr Colum Kelly was the first visitor to go on board the ship, which berthed at the port late Wednesday night. He said: “I got a phone call from the harbour master who asked if I could go on as the crew were very distressed. The captain and the crew member who witnessed the accident were particularly cut up. There is a lot of guilt and anger about. I stayed with them for most of the night."

Fr Colum was back on board on Thursday morning where he set up WiFi connection and spent more time with the crew of 10, who are Dutch, Russian and Indonesian. It is understood the missing seafarer was on his first contract with the ship.

Fr Colum said, “On leaving this morning the captain said ‘It was a great relief to have someone like you as our first visitor…someone who came to try to comfort us, rather than ask questions. I’m sure there are many questions to be answered but at least Apostleship of the Sea has done what we can for now,” added Fr Colum.

In a press release on Thursday the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said a comprehensive search of the river was conducted overnight involving Humber and Cleethorpes RNLI lifeboats, a rescue helicopter from RAF Leconfield and 25 commercial vessels from the Grimsby area which also helped with the search.

A thorough search of the shoreline was undertaken by Cleethorpes Coastguard Rescue Team but the seafarer was not found.

For more information on the AoS see: www.apostleshipofthesea.org.uk