A car carrier owned by Japan's MOL has safely rescued three yachtsmen in the North Atlantic.

The company said that on 9 February, the 58,000-gt, 6,400-ceu car carrier Progress Ace (built 2003) received a distress relay message from the French Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres.

The vessel, with 24 Filipino crew, headed to the scene while en route from Brunswick in the US to Walvis Bay in Namibia.