North Sea sinking: 11 dead as rescuers abandon hope of finding survivors Janusz Wolosz, second secretary at the Polish embassy in The Hague, told AFP that 11 of the 24 crew were Polish, of whom six have been saved, including the captain. Four Poles including, the captain, have been taken to hospital in Belgium, another to a hospital in Rotterdam and the sixth is being treated on a rescue ship. None of the 12 crew on board the Corvus J, which was sailing from Scotlandﾒs Grangemouth to Antwerp, were injured and the vessel left the scene of the collision under its own power after assisting rescuers. The Baltic Ace was carrying 1400 cars, most of them Mitsubishis from Japan and Thailand, from Zeebrugge to Kotka in Finland. The ship's managing company has suggested that human error was to blame for the sinking which was in international waters, sparking a debate over the authority with the jurisdiction to investigate which vessels failed to spot the other in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. "This incident took place out of our territorial waters," said Jos Klaren, a spokesman for the Dutch police. We are discussing with the prosecutor's office whether it is part of our jurisdiction. The collision took place 35 nautical miles (40 miles) off the Dutch Zeeland coast, the Baltic Ace cargo freighter sank almost immediately. The wreck, which is not in deep water, on the intersection of two busy shipping routes is currently patrolled by a Dutch coastguard ship to warn other vessels. There are around 24 serious incidents in the Rotterdam North Sea area every year, the Dutch national news agency ANP reported, around half of them collisions. A Dutch fishing boat in April 2005 netted a Second World War bomb that killed three fishermen when it exploded on board their vessel. In November 1994 a bulk carrier hit the trawler Larissa in the busy Dutch shipping route, killing six crew and the captain.