The Mission to Seafarers in Falmouth has welcomed 20 survivors from a ship that exploded in the mid-Atlantic.

At 10.07 last Saturday, Falmouth Coastguard received the relayed Mayday broadcast from the German registered MSC Flaminia reporting that the crew on board had abandoned the vessel.


Falmouth Coastguard broadcast an alert to all vessels in the area and the nearest vessel, which could provide assistance, was the oil tanker DS Crown that immediately changed course to intercept the MSC Flaminia.
 

DS Crown arrived on scene to confirm that the MSC Flaminia was still burning and recovered 24 people from a lifeboat and a life raft.

Three men remain in hospital in the Azores. Another man is unaccounted for, and is believed to have been killed in the explosion.

The MSC Flaminia’s chief officer died several hours after the shipboard explosion.

Father Mark Mesley, Port Chaplain in Falmouth, said: "We can put them in touch with their families, we can also provide a certain amount of clothing and all sorts of practical help.

"The crew will no doubt be quite shaken by the the events on board so we'll just have to wait and see how they react really, whether they want to talk about it."


Salvage tugs have raced to the scene for what could be a lucrative salvage contract with the ship and cargo insured for $130 million.
 

The MSC Flaminia was on a voyage from Charleston to Antwerp at the time of the fire with a crew of five Germans, three Poles and 15 Filipinos. The nationality of the two passengers is not known.
 

The ship’s German operators are refusing to give details of the cargo in number four hold where the fire started.
 

Shipping pundits are claiming that one possible cause of the fire is the bleaching agent calcium hypochlorite.