Rescuers call off search as 18 feared dead
Three bodies were found after the MS Rocknes overturned on Monday, and 12 crew members were rescued.
"The rescue is called off. There is no hope of finding survivors," rescue leader Trygve Sveen said. He doubted any survivors would be found inside the overturned ship.
Salvage experts pumped air inside the hull to keep it from sinking and to aid in the search for anyone trapped.
The freighter, with 30 crew members aboard most of them Filipinos capsized in a narrow inlet between the island of Bjoroey and Norway's western coast, less than 200 yards from land after it put out a distress call.
The last three survivors were pulled through a hole cut in the ship's bottom on Monday night after being trapped for seven hours. One trapped Filipino crewman pleaded for urgent action.
On a scrap of battered paper, he had written in large blue letters: "Ok. But pls make fast," adding that his shipmates were "dying". The freighter was loaded with rock and headed for Emden in Germany. The cause of the accident was unknown but survivors told the Bergens Tidende newspaper'sinternet edition that the ship had hit the bottom or a shoal shortly before capsizing, possibly damaging the hull.
In nearby Bergen flags flew at half-staff and the ship's owner requested a maritime inquiry. The ship's Norwegian captain, Jan Aksel Juvik, 56, was among the dead.
