24 Fishermen Rescued From Half-Submerged Ship

A Japanese coast guard helicopter rescued 24 fishermen as they desperately clung to the deck of a tilting, half-submerged ship being pounded by high waves Monday morning off an island chain southwest of Tokyo. One crewmember thrown from the rocking ship into the rough seas before the arrival of the rescuers was found dead, the AP reports. The Fukuei Maru No. 8 stalled due to an engine failure Sunday evening in the Pacific Ocean, about five hours after it departed the Yaizu Port in central Japan en route to South America for tuna fishing, according to the coast guard statement.

It apparently drifted in the rough seas and was blown by the strong wind, and the captain sent a distress signal about five hours later, saying his ship had hit the rocks, the coast guard said. It said that within two hours of the rescuers' arrival at the scene, the ship reported to them that one crew member was missing. The coast guard sent three patrol ships and three helicopters with special rescue teams to the site where the 183-foot, 379-ton ship went aground. Public broadcaster NHK showed the crewmembers standing against the bridge of the half-submerged ship as the waves pounded into it, each person waiting for their turn as fellow crewmembers were airlifted one by one by the helicopter hovering overhead. The cause of the ship's engine failure and loss of power was not immediately known.

(More shipwreck stories.)