Two ships sink in storm-churned Atlantic
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(AP) - Rescue workers fought their way into the storm-whipped Atlantic Sunday searching for the crews of two cargo ships which reportedly sank, Portugese, Spanish and French officials said. Three unidentified bodies were pulled from the Atlantic off Portugal in a search for those aboard the 3,000-ton, Nigerian cargo ship River Gurara, a Portugese Navy spokesman said.
Portugese Navy rescue teams in helicopters and boats picked up 27 of 46 people aboard the ship and brought them to Lisbon. bon aboard a frigate, he said, declining to be identified. Three women and three children, between one and five years old, were among those saved, he said.
The River Gurara had developed engine trouble at about 0200 GMT three kilometers (1.9 miles) off Cape Espichel, a rocky promontory jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. Galeforce northwesterly winds and five-meter (16-foot) waves then drove the ship on the rocks of the cape, the spokesman said. The three bodies were retreived near the cape, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Lisbon where the ship sank at 11:00 a.m. (1100 GMT) Sunday, the spokesman said.
In France, searchers set out Sunday to look for 15 sailors missing after their Singapore-registered freighter, the Anna Leonhardt, issued a distress call in the Atlantic. Officials at the Regional Operational Rescue Center in Morbihan, France said the captain radioed late Saturday night that he and the crew were abandoning the sinking ship in heavy seas about 220 miles (350 kilometers) west of Bordeaux.
The cause of the ship's distress was not clear. Searchers reported early Sunday finding one of the Anna Leonhardt's lifeboats and several rafts, but no sign of the 3,895-ton ship or its crew. Howling winds and 30-foot (10-meter) waves forced rescuers to suspend their search at about 3 a.m. (0200 GMT) Sunday, but a rescue plane and several merchant ships resumed the effort after daybreak
