An oil tanker diverted to Bermuda last week after a ship’s engineer died while the vessel was passing close to Bermuda.

The Rescue Co-ordination Centre Bermuda said the oil/chemical tanker Rudolph Schulte was 130 miles north of Bermuda last Monday when the second engineer suddenly collapsed unconscious in the engine room.

An RCC report said: “The ship’s crew administered CPR with oxygen support but despite their best efforts and a conference call between the ship, Rescue Co-ordination Centre Bermuda and a US Coast Guard flight surgeon at RCC Norfolk, it was concluded that the crewman was deceased.

The ship diverted to Bermuda to land the body of the 62-year-old Latvian national. When the vessel arrived at Five Fathom Hole on Tuesday, the body was transferred to a waiting pilot boat and the ship resumed her voyage from Houston, Texas, to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The cruise ship Celebrity Beyond also diverted to Bermuda after a crewman and a passenger fell ill and needed to go to hospital.

RCC said the ship was 500 miles southwest of Bermuda sailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to the Azores when it diverted to Bermuda to disembark a crew member in need of hospital admission.

“Later that afternoon the ship further advises that a passenger has suffered cardiac arrest and while now stabilised on a ventilator the ship will require assistance urgently disembarking this second emergency case as well,” RCC said.

The ship arrived off St David’s Head last Tuesday afternoon and both patients, two of the ship's medical staff and a family member were transferred to a waiting pilot boat.

They were brought to Ordnance Island, where they were taken by ambulances to hospital. The ship resumed her voyage to the Azores later that evening once the ship's medical staff were back on board.