Body found in search for fishermen

A body believed to be that of one of three fishermen missing since Thursday morning has been recovered from the sea, police said.

The men, named locally as 37-year-old skipper David MacFarland, crewman Robert Prowse, 23, and Jack Craig, 22, had not been seen or heard from since leaving Weymouth on their 36ft "potter" the Purbeck Isle.

A Dorset Police spokesman said: "The body of a male has been recovered from the sea by coastguard at approximately 5.30pm today. This is believed to be one of the missing fishermen from the vessel Purbeck Isle."

The families of the crew members have been informed of the discovery of the body, which has yet to be formally identified, the spokesman added.

Searches have been under way off the Dorset coast since the men were reported missing at around 6pm on Thursday night, including help from Navy warships, and coastguards continued to search a 10-mile area off the coast of Portland Bill using a helicopter and a lifeboat.

Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman Fred Caygill said teams were hoping to send down specialist equipment to look at an object of a similar size to that of the Purbeck Isle discovered on the sea bed by a survey ship with sonar equipment.

"We were offered the assistance of the Odyssey Explorer, which is a survey vessel which normally surveys the sea bed as part of its commercial work," he said.

"They were able to use their side scan sonar, which discovered on the sea bed, at the depth of about 55 metres, the shape of something on the sea bed.

"It is very difficult to identify what that particular object is. We are concentrating on trying to identify this object to either discount it or count it in, as the case may be."

Andy Alcock, 59, secretary of the Weymouth and Portland Fisherman and Licensed Boatman Association, said local fishermen had tried phoning the men's mobile phones when they first heard the boat was missing. "The lads had tried to phone the vessel and got just cut off lines, all three mobile phones just cut off, which is never a good sign," he said.