The five crew of a German shrimp trawler were able to board a life raft and were picked up by another fishing vessel.
Reported to be Ramona CUX-9, the incident occurred yesterday north of the uninhabited island of Scharhörn in the Elbe estuary. Weather conditions were reasonable, with a westerly force 4 (wind speed 28kh/h).
A rescue team on board the DGzRS lifeboat Anneliese Kramer attended the scene, and shot the accompanying video, but were unable to prevent Ramona from sinking.
The fishing vessel had reported rapid ingress of water and alerted the Cuxhaven traffic control centre. A number of vessels made their way to the scene. Fishing vessel Hoffnung was there first and picked up Ramona’s crew, who were taken to Cuxhaven.
Ramona sank within minutes of the arrival of lifeboat Anneliese Kramer, police launch Sylt and pilot vessel Elbe.
Rescuers were also able to retrieve Ramona’s EPIRB, which had automatically triggered a distress alert.
