Sharjah: The captain of Hamed II vessel, which sank off Al Hamriya port in Sharjah on Sunday, is still missing, port authorities told Gulf News yesterday.
The authorities believe that the Indian captain may have died after his vessel keeled over off the UAE shoreline due to gale-force winds and waves as high as six meters.
However, the captain's body has not been recovered until Monday evening with the coast guards and rescue teams searching for him.
A marine official said: "The body normally surfaces after 12 to 24 hours and if it fails to do so, then divers would be send to search for the body."
Amid a cold wave sweeping the country, the 45-metre long supply vessel Hamed II is reported to have gone down about 30 metres off the breakwater at Al Hamriya Port sometime early Sunday morning.
Sea conditions
The ship's holds were reportedly empty when it went down.
Accounts collected by Gulf News on Monday from sources in the maritime industry said that the Hamed II attempted to ride out rough sea conditions overnight and dropped anchor several hundred metres from port.
The anchor rod may have snapped and the ship drifted near the shore where high winds and waves are believed to have swamped the vessel.
The ship is resting in 12 metres of water near the sunken oil tanker Lady Moon which was claimed by the heavy seas last week.
