Crabber sinking: These guys were run down

POLICE are to examine a Singapore-registered cargo vessel's black box recorder to discover if it collided with a crabbing boat which sank with the presumed loss of a young Devon fisherman.

Chris Wadsworth, 21, from Teignmouth, is missing feared dead after the 50-tonne crabber Etoile Des Ondes sank off the French coast.

The boat, co-owned by Teignmouth brothers Dave and Rob Simmonds, had three other crewmen on board who survived.

Devon and Cornwall Police, who are leading the investigation into the tragedy, said the 47,000-tonne bulk carrier Alma Pintar was also involved in a "near miss" encounter with another large ship in the English Channel at the same time as the Etoile went down 30km off Cherbourg.

Det Sgt Alex Dawson, of Teignmouth CID, said the Alma Pintar was expected to reach the German port of Hamburg and dock last night, when German police were hoping to board the ship and speak to its captain and crew.

"It is registered in Singapore and, as the investigating police force, we will be looking at the ship's voyage data which is like an aircraft's black box," he said. "The data will show the actual location of the ship at the time and calls made from the vessel."

Meanwhile, in France, the skipper of the Etoile Des Ondes has told investigators about the moment his fellow crewman was lost in the freezing sea.

British and French authorities have begun investigating the sinking on Sunday evening, 30km off Cherbourg.

The co-owner of the boat, Rob Simmonds, said skipper Chris Bibb, 27, had pulled two of the crewmen, Matthew Collins and Daniel Bruce into the liferaft and set off a flare to alert a passing ship.

The remaining crewmen were expected to return home to England last night after spending time in a French hospital suffering from hypothermia. Rob said Mr Bibb had told him what happened.

"They were working at the time with all their deck lights and fishing lights on," he said. "They saw the ship coming at them, expecting it to alter its course. They tried to get out of its way at the last minute but it was too late and it struck them. Then the boat rolled over."

Rob said he had fished in the same waters for 25 years and near misses with larger vessels were not uncommon.

"There's no doubt about it, the ship should have seen them, they had high-powered bulbs on the boat," he said. "As far as I know she struck them and didn't even know it. She carried on going and never stopped.

"The collision rolled them over but the boat had come back up to lie on its side before sinking. The skipper got on the roof and got the lads in the lifeboat."

Speaking from Cherbourg yesterday, Dave Simmonds, co-owner of the boat, confirmed Mr Bibb had spent two hours speaking to British investigators from the Maritime Accident Investigation Branch.

A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: "The facts are simple: these guys were run down."

A French coastguard spokesman confirmed the search for Chris Wadsworth had been stopped and would not be resumed. He said: "Because of the water temperatures at the time and the low survivability rate, there is virtually no hope of finding him alive."