Eleven Russian sailors drowned in the Arctic after their rescue vessel went down in stormy seas on a mission to try to help a fishing boat in distress, dpa reported today. The Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that the Alexey Kulakowski sank in the early hours of Friday in the Laptev Sea, around 35 kilometres outside the port of Tiksi. The 30-year-old captain of the ship, and two mechanics, aged around 19 and 20 years, from the sinking vessel were rescued. But the search for the 11 remaining sailors was fruitless. A helicopter only found an empty inflatable rescue raft in the freezing 4-degrees-centigrade waters.
