The skipper of Bermudian tug boat the Powerful described last night how the crew felt when they were told to turn back as the search for their friends was abandoned.

The ten man crew had been at sea for six hours on Wednesday heading for the site where New Nuts had been capsized by a huge wave when they received the news that the search was called off. Powerful was 65 miles north-east of Bermuda and still at least 15 miles from the scene of the tragedy when the US Coast Guard and Harbour Radio decided to call off the search .

Powerful skipper Burton Ingham said yesterday that everyone on board knew the dead men, and survivor Robert (Bobby) Lambe.

"It was too bad. We had still had hopes for the ones that were missing," said Mr. Ingham. "We were glad that Bobby had survived, probably because he knew the boat, and maybe the others got tangled in the gear or hit their heads, and we feel sorry for the others and have condolences for their families."

Mr. Ingham revealed it took three hours to prepare Powerful to leave Dockyard for the search, and even then it could only travel at around 12 knots.

He said Powerful, which is used to tow ships, had to be unloaded of its ropes. And other gear had to be put on to keep the ship heavy so it would not be tossed around in the stormy seas. Mr. Ingham said the crew were told at 8.30 a.m. to be ready to go out, but with readying the ship and loading fuel and water, and unloading ropes on the 100 foot tug in rough conditions, it was 11.45 before they set sail from Dockyard.

He believes Bermuda should get its own dedicated rescue vessel, but said any new craft would have to be extremely heavy to cope with the turbulent conditions of the search for the New Nuts. "We were going into the wind and getting thrown about by the big swells, so they are going to have to get something fairly heavy."