It is still dark when six construction workers step into the Stormloper on Friday morning. They are on their way to a construction job on Terschelling, the twelve-year-old son of one of them is with them. The water taxi leaves the harbor of Harlingen around half past six for the journey of about 45 minutes.
The Ms Tiger, the newest express boat of shipping company Doeksen, departs from Terschelling half an hour later. It is quiet on board: 21 of the 414 seats are occupied. On a normal day, passengers could have watched out of the window as the Stormloper, a 11-foot black water taxi, sailed past. But that’s not how it goes.
At 7.17 am, the traffic control center in the Brandaris, the lighthouse of Terschelling, hears of the collision. Two lifeboats enter the water, says a spokesman for the rescue brigade (KNRM). A ship belonging to Rederij Noordgat is nearby and is heading for the accident site.
According to Newspaper of the North that shipping company finds four people on the hull of the Stormloper. Shortly afterwards, a fifth person is taken from the Schuitengat, the channel south of Terschelling, and later a sixth. The castaways go to the harbor of the Wadden Island, where two of them are unsuccessfully resuscitated. The other four are hypothermic and traumatized, a spokesperson for the security region says afterwards. The twelve-year-old child and the last passenger are still in the water at the time.
Boats in a row
The rescue brigade begins its search: in a row a handful of boats sail down the area where the missing persons may be according to calculations. “But it’s hard to see anything floating in the water. You almost have to sail against it.” Moreover, the search area is growing rapidly due to the current between Terschelling and Vlieland. “The search is going smoothly,” the spokesman said in the course of the morning.
The boats keep searching until half past eleven, then they give up. “The most terrible moment you can imagine as a social worker,” said Caroline van de Pol, mayor of Terschelling, in a press conference on Friday afternoon. “It makes people sick. I understand that that is why the KNRM has set sail again.” Furthermore, the fire brigade and rescue brigade only search on the beach.
The Tiger sails on to Harlingen with the permission of the authorities. There Dagblad van het Noorden sees that the bow of the ferry is deeper in the water than normal, and a photo also shows the black paint stripes that the Stormloper left behind. But the damage is nothing compared to that of the water taxi, which sank and then towed into shallower water.
Grief and mourning
Shocked reactions come from Terschelling, Harlingen and The Hague. Mayor Van de Pol: “There is an emotion of sadness and mourning on the island. It is a very black day.” The flag at shipping company Doeksen goes at half mast. “A terrible accident,” the company said on Twitter. Vivianne Heijnen, State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management: “The accident in the Wadden Sea affects me deeply. My thoughts go out to everyone involved.” The police have launched an investigation.
It is the third accident in the sea near Terschelling in a year. In May, a boom from a sailing vessel came off, killing a 79-year-old man, and in late August a broken boom took the life of a 12-year-old girl. “All three are different from each other,” says Van de Pol, who for that reason does not want to draw a connection. “I must say that I have learned to take the sea seriously since I came to live on Terschelling two years ago. It’s more than paddling.”
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