Pictured: Father-of-five British cargo ship seaman who is one of four missing after vessel collided with a tanker and sank in the North Sea – as rescue mission is called off

• Filipino Docenito Paler Jnr. named as one of missing seaman on MV Verity

Father-of-five named as one of the missing seamen on board the British cargo ship that sunk off the coast of Germany yesterday morning. 

Filipino Docenito Paler Jnr., from Tangub City, was named by friends as part of the four crew members who remain unaccounted for since the Isle-of-Man registered MV Verity collided with a larger freight ship and sank in the North Sea.

The four who are missing are believed to have been trapped inside the ship’s hull.

His friend, James Arnold, told MailOnline today: ‘We would like to know if he is still alive because he has five children, the youngest being a toddler.

‘The sad thing is that before he went on board, his son told him to stay home and not go back to work.

‘He is a close friend and we just want to know if he is still alive or trapped inside the ship.’

Filipino Docenito Paler Jnr., from Tangub City (pictured), was named by friends as part of the four crew members who remain unaccounted for since the Isle-of-Man registered MV Verity collided with a larger freight ship and sank in the North Sea 

The damaged hull of a tanker that collided with a British cargo ship that later sank in the North Sea near Germany(pictured)

British-flagged vessel Verity (file image) collided with another cargo ship Polesie at around 5am on Tuesday morning about 14 miles southwest of the island of Heligoland, Germany ‘s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said

Two other sailors were rescued after being found adrift at sea and are receiving medical treatment ashore in Germany while another – believed to be originally from Ukraine – was confirmed to have died. 

His body was recovered shortly before noon on Tuesday.

German rescue teams today called off their search for the four missing sailors.

The rescue mission, which involved several ships and aircraft scouring the North Sea amid 10ft waves and heavy fog, proved fruitless yesterday.

And after rescuers said it was possible that the four missing crew members were trapped inside the ship’s hull, divers were sent down to the depth of the sea to desperately search for signs of life. But they were unable to find anything.

The P&O cruise ship Iona, which left Southampton for Hamburg, Rotterdam and Bruges in Belgium, was among vessels that joined in the search for survivors. It has now left the scene. Pictures show a spotlight aimed at the water as the search operation got underway before dawn

Two rescue cruisers, an emergency tug, a pilot boat, a police patrol boat and a helicopter helped with the search yesterday (pictured) but they have now stopped their search of the water’s surface 

The 91-metre long MV Verity collided with the larger freighter Polesie at 5am in the German Bight, the shallow south-eastern part of the North Sea, 12 nautical miles south-west of the German island of Heligoland, Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies (CCME) said.

MV Verity, built in 2001, was carrying a cargo of steel coils from the German port of Bremen to Immingham on the Humber estuary in North Lincolnshire.

A spokesperson for Faversham Shipping, the company which owns MV Verity, said they were currently unable to confirm those on board the stricken vessel but they were hoping to put out a statement later today.’

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