The ''Sea-Eye'' is a former fishing trawler. The ship was bought by

Sea-Eye Sea-Eye is a German non-governmental organization headquartered in Regensburg. It participates in the rescue of migrants in distress in the Mediterranean, in particular by having chartered the ships '' Sea-Eye'' and '' Seefuchs/ Sea Fox'' until Aug ...

e.V. in 2014 and was used as a rescue ship in the southern Mediterranean from 2015 to 2018, primarily between

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

. The ship sailed under the flag of the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Her sister ship is the '' Seefuchs'' (described on the Sea-Eye website as identical and built within a year of ''Sea-Eye''), which until 2019 was also used by Sea-Eye.

History

The ship was built on the Elbe shipyard (

Elbewerft Boizenburg Elbewerft Boizenburg was a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Boizenburg. Since 1990 it has been part of the Deutschen Maschinen- und Schiffbau AG (DMS AG). History The boat workshop was founded by Franz Jürgen Lemm in 1793. The first ...

) in

Boizenburg Boizenburg (, ) is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, west of Ludwigslust, northeast of Lüneburg and east of Hamburg. It is part of the ...

in the late 1950s. The ship was launched as the last ship of its series and was put into service on 4 May 1959 as the SAS 320 ''Sternhai'' by the owner and operator, VEB Fischfang Saßnitz. 20 of the same type of ship were initially built at the

Volkswerft Volkswerft () is a shipyard in the Hanseatic city of Stralsund on the Strelasund. It is part of the German Hegemann-group. The Volkswerft was founded in 1948 as ''Ingenieurbau Ges.m.b.H.''. On April 25 the first trawler was delivered and on June 1 ...

Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German language, German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklen ...

and later another 30 at Elbewerft Boizenburg. The cutter has a length of 26.65 meters, which is why it was colloquially called "twenty-six". The ships' fishing area was primarily the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. In 1991 the ''Sternhai'' was bought privately and remained in the fishery until 2014.

Use as a rescue ship

In the wake of the humanitarian emergency and in the face of numerous drowning people in connection with escape and migration across the Mediterranean to the EU, the non-governmental organization Sea-Eye e.V. bought the former fishing vessel, which they repaired and renamed ''Sea-Eye'', as the first of their ships. Since 2015, after some modifications, ''Sea-Eye'' has been used for rescue operations in the Mediterranean. The ship broke down in autumn 2018 due to engine failure and was stranded in

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

References

{{Reflist Sea rescue organizations European migrant crisis Immigrant rights activism Humanitarian aid organizations in Europe Refugee aid organizations in Europe