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Burmese lost at sea



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4 Burmese feared drowned far off Nova Scotia

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Friday October 24 5:22 PM EDT

Rescuers Seek More Survivors in Shipwreck

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) - A frigid sailor clinging to his dead
shipmate was plucked from the North Atlantic Friday as rescuers searched
for survivors of a ship that sank in stormy seas, killing at least four.

"He was hanging on to the other one," a weary Dan Bedell said from Canada's
Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax.

The sailor, suffering from extreme hypothermia, was rescued after almost 18
hours in the water. Four others, including the one he was hanging onto,
have now been found dead. Another was still missing late Friday morning.

Late Thursday night the multinational rescue team had saved nine other
sailors who had managed to get into a covered raft as they abandoned the
bulk carrier Vanessa at around noon EDT, and thus had not been in the
chilly waters.

The six members of the 15-man crew who did not make it onto rafts were
apparently swept overboard with only lifejackets and no thermal insulation,
Lt. Cmdr. Glenn Chamberlain said from the Rescue Center in Halifax.

The survivor, who had been bobbing in water of about 62 F, was taken aboard
the Canadian patrol vessel Cape Roger shortly before 6 a.m. EDT.

"One has survived and that definitely gives us hope," Chamberlain said.

Search-and-rescue medical experts were parachuted in to the boat to try to
warm him up and stabilize his condition.

Six civilian ships had gathered to comb the area, aided by three long-range
military aircraft, two from Canada and one from the United States.

Located 450 nautical miles off the Newfoundland coast, the sailors were out
or range of Canada's aged search-and-rescue helicopters. The sailors were,
however, in the Gulf Stream in much warmer water than that closer to the
Canadian coast.

Chamberlain pointed out that the water was still chilly and the waves
rough, making it difficult to survive for an extended period of time.

The 4,400-ton Vanessa, which is Norwegian-owned and registered in the
Bahamas, had been carrying chemical fertilizer from Sweden to the
Caribbean.

It began taking on water and started to sink on Thursday morning.
Chamberlain said no trace had been found of the vessel.

Ten of the sailors are Filipinos, four are Burmese and one was Dutch. The
breakdown among the dead and survivors was not yet known.

Defense Minister Art Eggleton came under fire in Parliament Thursday for
delays in buying new search-and-rescue helicopters which could be more
effective.

The Liberal government, immediately upon taking office in 1993, had
cancelled a contract which it deemed wasteful at C$4.8 billion ($3.5
billion U.S.).

The government had to pay C$480 million ($350 million) in penalties, and is
now struggling with whether to choose a slimmed-down version from the same
original contractors or to go for another model. Eggleton said a decision
was due soon.

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