GIANT WAVE - The Lighthouse - page 84

After the receipt of the SOS signals, at 4.43 a.m. a number of radio stations started
to receive automatic emergency signals. At 5.30 p.m. on 13 December 1978 an interna-
tional search and rescue operation commenced, controlled by the coastguard at Land's
End in the UK. Three aircraft and six ships commenced a search for the München, but
wind speeds with a strength of 11-12 17 on the Beaufort Scale hindered the effort.
A further signal was received at 9.06 a.m. on 13 December when a Belgian radio
amateur in Brussels, named Michael Sinnot, received a voice transmission on the un-
usual frequency, 8238.4 kHz, which was usually used by the German ground station
Norddeich Radio. The transmission was clear but interrupted by some noise, and con-
tained parts of München 's name and call sign. Later, in court, Sinnot reported that the
voice was calm and spoke in English but with a distinct German accent. Since Sinnot
only had a receiver for this frequency, he relayed the message via telex to a radio sta-
tion in Ostend. More signals were received later that day when ten weak Mayday calls
were received bytheUSNaval Station atRota inSpainatregular intervals, mentioning
'twenty-eight persons on board'. The messages may have been recorded and sent auto-
matically. München 's call sign (DEAT), sent in Morse code, was received three times
on the same frequency.
TheweakMaydaycallswerealsoreceivedbyaDutchocean-goingtugboat Smit Rot-
terdam , which was returning from other mayday calls in the Gulf of Breton and the
English Channel. The Smit Rotterdam immediately proceeded to the position given in
the signals and acted as a coordination point for the ships and aircraft that were by that
pointinvolvedinthesearchforthe München .Theweatherwasstillbadwithveryheavy
seas. The following day, 14 December, the wind speed had dropped to Force 9 and by
this time there were seventeen ships and four aircraft involved in the search. Over the
following days, 14-17 December, a number of ships located various items from the
München . On 14 December signals were received from München 's emergency buoy
and at 7 p.m. that day the British freighter King George picked up an empty life raft.
Another Hapag Lloyd vessel, the Erlangen , found three of the eighty-three lighters that
the München was carrying. In addition to the finds by the ships, an RAF Nimrod mari-
time reconnaissance aircraft located two orange objects in the sea, which were found to
be buoys from the München.
Other ships in the search continued to find more items from the München. A life
raft was found by a salvage tug Titan and another was found by the MS Badenstein.
The weather had improved considerably by 17 December with the wind speed coming
down to Force 3. On that afternoon the Dusseldorf Express found the München 's emer-
gency buoy and a freighter named Starlight found two lifebelts and sighted three life
vests. A fourth empty life raft was picked up by the Sealand Consumer and the Evelyn
sighted another life vest. The search, which had been the largest undertaken to that date