The crew of Evelyn Maersk, a container ship en route from Suez to Algeciras, participated on Saturday, August 30, in a search and rescue operation launched in an effort to find a fishing boat sinking off Sicily, carrying hundreds of immigrants on board, Seanews reports.
One of the Mediterranean’s RCC centers sent a request to the container ship to head towards the fishing boat which was experiencing engine trouble and was taking in water.
After more than 10 hours of searching, Evelyn Maersk found the disabled and sinking fishing boat with a list of 30 degrees.
352 immigrants, among them 43 children in bad physical condition, were boarded on the container ship on Sunday, August 31.
Evelyn Maersk reached Trapani, Sicily, on Monday, September 1, where the immigrants disembarked the next day, and were given medical care.
The immigrants are reportedly refugees from Syria and the Horn of Africa.
Evelyn Maersk resumed the interrupted schedule upon the landing of the refugees in Sicily, Tuesday, September 2.