The maritime surveillance center was notified at 3:34 p.m. that the ship which had earlier left Tallinn's Paljassaar Port had tilted, then capsized and gone under, a representative from the border guard told BNS.
Deputy general director of the Waterways Department Vello Muru said that according to preliminary information, the man who remained in the ship was the first mate. The captain, Lithuanian Alexander Daskov, was rescued.
The accident happened on a calm sea with no waves and very good visibility.
"If the first mate had gotten out of the ship, we'd probably have found him, because the sea was smooth as glass at the site of the accident," Muru told BNS.
Muru said that flint ore had been loaded on the ship in Paljassaare Port before the ship went out onto Tallinn Bay. Off Paljassaar, the ship made a turn, capsized for reasons not yet known and went down.
The ship arrived in Paljassaare from Odense, and its destination was Rotterdam.
"According to preliminary information, the ship could have capsized because of an overload or wrong placement of the load," Muru told BNS.
Experts, however, do not exclude the possibility of a hole developing in the hull.
He said the depth at the site of the accident was nearly 50 meters. The 499-ton ship, owned by Lithuania's Baltnautic Shipping Klaipeda, was 55 meters long and had been registered in San Lorenzo in Honduras.
The Estonian Waterways Department coordination center said rescue work started with the Ahto. Six members of the crew were taken to safety from the keel of the capsized ship, but one man had remained aboard.
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