Entire Ship Crew Treated for Food Poisoning

A doctor and a nurse were last night treating 24 foreign crewmen with suspected food poisoning on board a cargo ship off the Western Isles, the U.K. Maritime & Coastguard Agency reported.

Earlier, six of the worst-hit crewmen were evacuated by the Stornoway lifeboat to hospital in Stornoway after the captain of the 50,000-ton Yeoman Bridge became concerned for their well being.

However, after the GP and a police officer were winched on board the vessel by Coastguard helicopter to assess their condition, it was decided that it was not necessary to take the crew off, but to treat them on board.

The Western Isles Major Incident Response Team had been looking at all the options in case a full evacuation of the ship was necessary.

But after the doctor and a police officer were put on board, they reported that the ship was in good order and that, while all the crew had some symptoms, they were considered stable and not needing hospitalization.

A volunteer nurse with additional medical supplies later took over from the detective sergeant and she and the doctor were to continue their work treating the crew during the night.

Stornoway Coastguard have said that the vessel was safely at anchor about three miles south of Stornoway harbour.

The Yeoman Bridge had been on passage from Hamburg to Sandsa when the captain called for help on Tuesday morning.