Trawler sinking: 'Hero' skipper tried to save crew member

The family of a fisherman missing after a trawler capsized off the Sussex coast described the captain who tried to save him as an "absolute hero".

Three crew members were onboard the Joanna C when it sank three miles out to sea on Saturday.

Skipper Dave Bickerstaff was found clinging to a buoy and rescued, while the body of 26-year-old Adam Harper, from Brixham, Devon, was found by divers in the wreckage on Monday.

Robert Morley, 38, is still missing.

Mr Morley was born in Newhaven and had moved to Pembrokeshire. His family said they had been told "the boat had a freak accident, he went over into the water".

At a vigil on Wednesday in Newhaven, Rev Martin Miller, from St Michael's Church, said Mr Morley's parents wanted to "say a big thank you to [Mr Bickerstaff] for his heroic efforts to do what he could to save them".

Barry Woolford, Mr Morley's stepfather, told BBC South East's Colin Campbell: "David Bickerstaff is an absolute hero in my eyes, he was trapped underneath the [capsized] boat, he managed to get out.

"David was floating with Robert for four or five hours. Robert had been in the water an hour longer than David so I think hypothermia must have got him and he slipped away and then David was fortunate enough to be rescued.

"There is one small blessing out of that tragedy, that one of the crew came home."

Mr Morley's mother, Jackie Woolford, said: "My Robert wasn't alone when he died. His skipper stayed with him all the time.

"He held him until he went and then he couldn't hold him anymore because he had to save himself. He is the most bravest person."

Paying tribute to her son, Mrs Woolford said: "Robert from when a little boy has always wanted to be on the sea.

She said fishing was his passion: "He went to sea, he fished, he came on land, he got a rod and he went and fished."

She said she wanted him to be remembered "with this big cheeky grin on his face".

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