east of Miami on Monday night.

The 520-foot A.V. Kastner was travelling from Jacksonville to Tampa when the officer of the watch saw a distress flare.

The fishing vessel Marylin Luise had started taking on water suddenly and sank. The captain and crew escaped into a liferaft.

During the rescue, the US Coast Guard dispatched the cutter Joshua Applyby to rendezvous with the Kastner outside Tampa. The three uninjured crewmen of the Marylin Luise , were transferred to the Coast Guard cutter, but the captain who injured his back remained on board the Kastner , which carried on to Tampa. It is owned by Gypsum Transportation Limited, which is based in Bermuda. Roger Farge, Gypsum president, said because of Bermuda's strict Maritime Registry regulations the crew was able to respond as well as they did. He said: "What (the crew) did was exemplary.''