A rescue vessel is due to arrive this week at the site of the loss of the 266,141-dwt Stellar Daisy (built 1993), which claimed the lives of 22 seafarers.

Only two people survived when the bulker went down in the South Atlantic off the coast of Uruguay on 31 March while fully laden with a cargo of iron ore.

The rescue vessel is the latest ­initiative by South Korean owner Polaris Shipping to try to recover survivors or bodies, in what is ­already one of the longest-ever search-­and-rescue (SAR) operations in maritime history.