Cargo ship rescues four sailors

MONDAY, NOV. 7: Four people were rescued by The Oleander in stormy weather yesterday.

The cargo ship picked up the four survivors from an abandoned boat, Elle.

A spokesman for the Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre said: “At approximately 3:30 pm yesterday, the crew of M/v Oleander was involved in the successful recovery of four survivors from the 46 foot sailing vessel ‘Elle’ a NARC rally participant, located approximately 200 miles northwest of Bermuda.”

The captain decided to abandon the boat after steering failure and an injury to a crewmember — bruised ribs.

The Oleander was on its way to Bermuda from New Jersey when it was diverted to help the crewmembers.

The ship arrived this morning.

“One of the survivors wished to express his gratitude for the professionalism shown by the captain and crew of the Oleander during the rescue operation”, the spokesman said.

In another incident yesterday, at 12:20pm the boat Spring Moon was rescued 550 miles southwest of Bermuda.

Cable ship ‘Ocean’ was diverted to the area to recover three crewmembers from the sailboat.

Ocean is due to bring the three survivors to the east end of Bermuda tomorrow afternoon.

Early this morning, the boat Riot suffered steering failure coming into St George’s Harbour and was brought in by a pilot boat and tugboat.

The boat was safely guided into the Harbour.

And a passenger on the Explorer of the Seas was taken to the King Edward Memorial VII Hospital this morning via ambulance one the ship docked at King’s Wharf.