Six feared dead after giant wave sinks ship

Two crew members were plucked from the water after the 81-metre vessel sank ten miles off the Lleyn Peninsula in north Wales.

Another person is confirmed to have died in the incident and five were still missing when the search was called off for the night.

The Duke of Cambridge was called into action from RAF Valley in Anglesey, as co-pilot of the Sea King search and rescue helicopter that winched the survivors to safety.

Click here to view footage of the rescue mission, filmed from the RAF helicopter

The ship, the Swanland, issued a mayday call at about 2am yesterday when its hull cracked following the impact of a massive wave.

Two members of the Russian crew of the Cook Islands-registered vessel were pulled from a life vessel in the water soon after the alarm was raised and were taken to hospital in Bangor for checks.

Another crew member was found in the water later in the morning but has been confirmed as having died, said the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

While some of the remaining five were believed to be wearing survival suits, given sea temperatures of about 13C they would not be expected to survive in the water more than about six hours, the coastguard said.

Gale-force winds battered the Irish Sea during the early hours of yesterday morning and the coastguard believes that could have been what caused the incident.

Holyhead Coastguard watch manager Ray Carson said: “The two men recovered from the water were brought here before going to the hospital. I think they are OK and are just suffering from shock.

“In broken English and through drawing a diagram, the second officer told us the ship was hit by an enormous wave. It rolled the ship and it broke its back. He said this led to a catastrophic failure of the vessel.”

The cargo ship was carrying 3,000 tonnes of limestone from Colwyn Bay to Cowes in the Isle of Wight.

Mr Carson said the rescue undertaken by the Sea King crew would have required considerable skill. Prince William was involved for about two hours before returning to base.

“It would be quite a feat given the conditions,” he said. “As well as keeping a helicopter stable in the winds, they had to winch someone down to a life raft moving around in the water.”

A liferaft seen near Bardsey Island, off the Lleyn Peninsula, may now be the best hope of finding survivors. Two attempts yesterday to make certain that nobody was inside were unsuccessful.

A crew member from a Sea King rescue helicopter was winched to within feet of the liferaft but conditions made it impossible to get closer.

An Abersoch inshore life-boat crew also tried to access the raft, beached among dangerous rocks, but was forced to give up.

“The rescue helicopter hovered over the raft and a man was winched down but could not illicit a response,” a spokesman for Holyhead Coastguard said.

“With a helicopter hovering 50ft above them, and the noise it must have made, it is unlikely that anyone was there.

“But you never know. There is always a chance that somebody might be inside.”