On the night of Monday 19th January 2004, the 166 metre (550 ft)long bulk carrier, ROCKNES, (recently built in 2001), loaded with rocks, bound for Emden in Germany, was sailing from Norway. She had a crew of 31 on board (24 Filipinos, 3 Dutch, 2 Norwegians and 1 German) plus the Norwegian pilot.
After one emergency radio message, she turned over in just a few seconds in the icy waters off Bjoroey, Norway. Local residents saw the accident, where crew members were seen being flung off the vessel as she went over. In such water temperatures, those trapped in the over-turned vessel stood little chance, unless quickly rescued - just 12 were.
Some crew were trapped inside the vessel. 3 who were heard banging on the steel hull from inside the engine room were successfully rescued by the rescue team cutting through the up-turned hull to reach them. Sadly it was simply not possible to reach all in this way. My thanks to Øyvind Snibsøer of Logiteam AS for adding some corrections within the above facts.
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