MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argos Georgia tragedy: Montevideo port fishing vessels turn sirens on to remember fallen mariners

The once proud and daring state-of-the-art Argos Georgia at Montevideo port

At mid morning Thursday, fishing vessels in the port of Montevideo turned their sirens on for a few minutes to the memory of the lost mariners from longliner Argos Georgia, believed to be almost unsinkable given its sturdy complexion and modern technology, which sunk in the middle of a dramatic storm in the deep south Atlantic.

 Earlier in the year she had called in Montevideo for fuel and provisions before sailing to the Falklands and from there east with its South Georgia toothfish license- But on this occasion the dramatic storm, 35 knots wind and eight meter high waves raging now for a week turned into a tragedy when the vessel called for help and all of the crew members took to live rafts in the midst of challenging consequences that finally only allowed 14 out of 27 to survive, with the loss of nine mariners and four still missing.

From Galicia is was reported that the crew was made of ten Spaniards, eight Russians, five Indonesians, and four Peruvians. This is because two of the identified members as Uruguayans, according to the Montevideo fishing mariners union, actually were Peruvians with documents from where they had long established.

The 20|8 Turkish-built vessel is owned by Argos Froyanes, a privately owned partnership between Argos from the Falklands and Ervik Havfiske, Norway’s largest longline fishing company. The vessel operated in the South Atlantic to catch Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish, also known as Chilean seabass or merluza negra in the River Plate. April/September for the Patagonian catch and December/February for Antarctic toothfish.

Robert Ervik, managing director of Ervik Havfiske was quoted saying that in the company they were speechless when news of the disaster reached, and that a whole picture of what happened will depend on the testimonies of crew members. “The boat was from 2018 and the company had never before encountered any problems with the vessel.”

Apparently for unknown and unconfirmed versions the vessel loss power and instead of steaming ahead straight into the storm and the waves for which she was exceptionally prepared, was caught on its side by a first huge wave, and then fatally a second, something similar to what happened with the main life raft with the survivors inside.

Anyhow sometime this Friday a Spanish air force transport should be arriving to the Falklands to return Spanish dead and live mariners. Following the full recovery of the rest of crew members from their shock and ordeal under Falklands medical facilities, will come the turn for maritime experts and insurance companies to try and untangle the tragedy of the Argos Georgia.