The search widened yesterday for 36 Greek and Filipino crewmen of a huge cargo ship that sank in a fierce North Atlantic storm.

But hopes of finding any survivors dimmed when a Norwegian tanker found a damaged and empty life boat late on Sunday.

Canadian Coast Guard officials believed this indicated some Marika 7 crew members failed to make it onto the life rafts.

Swedish and German ships and a Portuguese Hercules plane joined the search yesterday.

Bermuda Harbour Radio helped coordinate initial search and rescue efforts by making emergency broadcasts to ships in the area to divert after the Canadian Coast Guard was unsuccessful in getting any vessels to the scene.

A Harbour Radio spokesman said the Canadians were now in charge of the search.

And, in light of findings so far, they would probably make a decision today on whether or not to wind it up.

He speculated the freighter could have gone down due to a cargo shift caused by the storm.

The spokesman said Harbour Radio's only role now in the search was providing communications support between stations involved.

"The chances of finding survivors are extremely slim, because everything we have found so far would indicate that it had broken from the vessel as it sank rather than being deployed by people,'' said Coast Guard officer Mr. Dave Lever.

Rescuers, however, continued to search for the other two rafts of the Liberian-registered freighter.

They said winds had slowed and waves dropped to 15-18 feet.

The 20-year-old bulk carrier disappeared from radar screens on Saturday when it sailed into a storm 950 miles east of Newfoundland. It was travelling from Quebec to Holland with 150,000 tonnes of iron ore.

Container ships crossing the Atlantic from Russia, Sweden and Germany were diverted to the area on Monday in case Canadian, American and Portuguese aircraft already on the lookout spotted anything.

Rescue experts reached by telephone from Ottawa said if any of the crew had managed to make it onto life rafts, they could survive for up to four days in the relatively warm water.

The freighter, the length of three football fields, lost touch early on Saturday without sending out a distress signal. Aircraft were guided to the area by signals from the ship's automatic emergency beacon.

Search ships recovered three empty life preservers and planes spotted two life rafts late on Saturday. They also saw two flares fired, indicating seamen had survived the sinking.

On Sunday they reported an oil slick, evidence that the stricken freighter had gone down.

The 81,262-ton freighter was owned by a Greek-registered company called Atlantic Maritime and had a crew of six Greek officers and 30 Filipino sailors.