Around 5 am about 14 miles southwest of the island of Heligoland, Germany, the British bulk carrier Verity sank after colliding with the Bahamian-flagged bulk carrier Polesie. Of the Verity‘s crew of seven, two were rescued, one has died and four remain missing. The ship had been from Bremen to the English town of Immingham with a cargo of steel.

The Polesie was sailing from Hamburg to La Coruna in Spain with a crew of 22, none of whom were reported to be injured. The 38,056 DWT Polesie is roughly ten times larger than the 3,360 DWT Verity, measured by cargo capacity.

“We are now doing everything humanly possible to rescue more people alive,” the head of the emergency command, Robby Renner, said at a news conference in Cuxhaven.

 The water temperature at the time of the accident was about 12 degrees Celsius (54 Fahrenheit), which experience shows people can survive for about 20 hours, said Michael Ippich of the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service.

AP reports that several rescue ships and aircraft taking part in the search hadn’t located the missing crew members by mid-afternoon. Rescuers were considering the possibility that they were still inside the Verity, and planned to send divers down to the wreck at a depth of about 30 meters (98 meters) to check whether there are any signs of life, Renner said.

Thanks to David Rye for contributing to this post.