Even sighting someone in Falmouth bay would be difficult

Coastguard Peter Bullard

The 67,000-tonne vessel was one day out of Southampton, having left New York last week on a six-day Atlantic crossing.

A spokesman for the ship's owners, Cunard, said the missing man, who has not been named, had last been seen asleep in his bunk.

He said: "His non-appearance at work was reported at 8am and a thorough search of the ship was made.

"It was decided that his chances of survival were very poor so the ship continued on to Southampton after the coastguard had been contacted."

The spokesman said the missing man is described as very quiet and a non-drinker.

Survival

An RAF Nimrod from RAF Kinloss was in the area and joined a UK coastguard aircraft and an Irish fisheries plane in the search.

They tracked the line the ship had taken to see if they can spot the person in the water.

Weather conditions in the area where the man went overboard were described as "quite reasonable".

Rescuers estimated that a person could survive for six hours in such conditions.

RAF Rescue Centre spokesman Michael Mulford said the search had been called off at around 1700BST.

'Difficult'

"It is always sad to call a search off but it was no longer serving any purpose," he said.

"It a fact of life, some people survive these things and some do not."

The watch manager at Falmouth coastguard, Peter Bullard, said the search had been difficult.

"The sea conditions out there were moderate, about force 5, but when you are looking for a person in the water in those weather conditions, even sighting someone in Falmouth bay would be difficult," he said.

"Out in the middle of the Atlantic it is a very long hope unfortunately."

Among those known to be sailing on the QE2 is Paul Burrell, former butler to Diana, Princess of Wales, who is lecturing to passengers on his life with the royals.