FISHERMEN SEARCH: Loved ones pray after body found in desperate hunt to find missing boatmen off Portland

Dorset Police said the body was believed to be one of the crew of the missing vessel Purbeck Isle. Police added that no further details were being released until formal identification had taken place.

The community is in shock after the Weymouth-based fishing boat Purbeck Isle went missing off Portland and is feared to have sunk.

The three fishermen, named locally as David McFarlane, 35, Jack Craig, 22, and Robert Prowse, 20, were reported missing after failed attempts to contact the Purbeck Isle on Thursday.

The boat had left Weymouth harbour in the morning to whelk, but could not be reached from lunchtime onwards.

Portland Coastguard, which was alerted by a concerned friend of the skipper, launched a search at around 6pm.

Determined teams including the Portland Coastguard helicopter, Weymouth lifeboats, two Royal Navy vessels, an American Navy supply vessel, and National Coastwatch Institution at Portland Bill worked continuously to try and locate the men after the alarm was raised.

The search was resumed at first light yesterday and continued throughout the day with the Lee-on-Solent helicopter also called in.

It was hoped the men had jumped into a life raft and were drifting down the coast but hopes were fading last night.

Grace and Colin McFarlane, the parents of missing skipper David McFarlane, said that the family were ‘devastated’ and were ‘hoping and praying for a positive outcome’.

They added, in a statement, that they had not received any certified information but that the rescue services were following up all leads.

Mr McFarlane, from Weymouth, has three daughters. He is known to friends as Farley. Mr Prowse, is a father-of-two who is Weymouth born and bred. Mr Craig is believed to be from Portland.

It is understood that police family liaison officers were with the families yesterday.

An object was located on the sea bed around nine miles off Portland on Thursday night, but sonar detection equipment yesterday failed to determine if it was the missing boat.

Debris found in the sea during the search yesterday was also ruled out as belonging to the Purbeck Isle.

Torbay lifeboat was launched in case the three men were in a lifeboat and had been carried westwards.

Lee Fisher, of Portland Coastguard, said yesterday: “Our hearts go out to the families involved. We are continuing and will continue to do our best to find these men.

“The lifeboat on the vessel has the capacity to take the three crew members and keep them safe and sound so we are hopeful.

“I want to reassure the people of Weymouth that HM Coastguard, with support of other organisations, is doing all it can to get a positive outcome.”

Mr McFarlane’s friend, fisherman Kelvin Moore said: “Another fisherman was trying to contact them from about 12pm onwards because someone was trying to put in an order.

“After hearing nothing, he contacted the Portland Coastguard and soon it was a major search operation.

“We know they found something on the seabed but don’t know if it’s the boat. All three have got mobile phones and they had a radio system onboard. If something was happening surely they would have contacted us? We’ve heard absolutely nothing.

“I’ve known David for around ten to 15 years through fishing. His boat was just a couple of berths away from mine.

“The boat had just undergone a huge refit in the last few months and Farley was working all the hours he could.

“I want to be hopeful but every minute that the search goes on, you worry more.”

He added that Mr McFarlane was a skilled fisherman and had worked away in the Channel Islands in the past.

TIMELINE

• May 17: 8.30am – The vessel leaves Weymouth harbour to go whelking.

• 5.40pm – Portland Coastguard receives a phone call from a fisherman who was concerned about the Purbeck Isle.

• 6pm – With no sign or word from the fishermen, Purbeck Isle is reported missing.

• 7.15pm – The Weymouth Lifeboat is launched to search for the vessel, along with coastguard helicopters and the Royal Navy Warship the HMS York.

• 11pm – The Lyme Regis inshore lifeboat, the Spirit of Loch Fyne, is launched to carry out an additional shoreline search of the coast along Chesil Beach.

• May 18: 3am – The boats return to station.

• 5.30am – The search resumes.

• 8am – Fishermen join the search for the vessel.

5.30pm - Body found

WELLWISHERS ON TWITTER

SCORES of well-wishers sent their messages to the three missing fisherman and their families.

Friends and residents used Twitter to express their concern.

One Twitter user, @RachelDrewer, said: “Thoughts going out to the crew of the #PurbeckIsle and their families.”

Another user, @jacquiez1, said: “Oh dear, not looking good that the #purbeckisle fishing boat is still not found. Keep hoping #Weymouth.”

As the search for the missing men was stepped up, more well-wishers were seen tweeting their best wishes.

One user, @DreamCottages, said: “Here’s hoping the #PurbeckIsle is found safe and sound soon enough.”

Another concerned well-wisher, @talktotippers, said: “Biggest hopes that they find the crew of #purbeckisle safe. The sea is an unforgiving place.”

SPECIAL KIT USED IN HUNT

MARITIME and Coastguard Agency spokesman Fred Caygill said that teams were hoping to send down specialist equipment to look at an object, a similar size to that of the Purbeck Isle, discovered on the seabed yesterday by a survey ship with sonar equipment.

He said: “'We were offered the assistance of the Odyssey Explorer, which is a survey vessel which normally surveys the sea bed as part of its commercial work. They were able to use their side scan sonar which discovered on the sea bed, at the depth of about 55 metres, the shape of something on the sea bed.

“It is very difficult to identify what that particular object is. We are concentrating on trying to identify this object to either discount it or count it in, as the case may be.''

Coastguards first became of the plight of DH104 Purbeck Isle at 5.39pm on Thursday when a call was received from a worried fisherman.

BOAT FACED PROBLEMS

THE Purbeck Isle is a 50-year-old 36ft wooden vessel known as a ‘potter’.

Skipper David McFarlane was airlifted to hospital in June last year when he suffered a serious hand injury at sea.

The Portland Coastguard helicopter took Mr McFarlane to hospital when his hand got caught in a winch while 13 miles south west of Portland Bill.

The crewmen on board the vessel brought it to Weymouth harbour.

In January last year the family of crew on the Purbeck Isle alerted coastguards when it began taking on water four miles off Abbotsbury.

It was towed back to Weymouth.

In September 2009, fishermen aboard the Purbeck Isle hauled up an unexploded sea mine, which was eventually destroyed in a controlled explosion at sea.