The search was called off last night for two missing fishermen who are believed to have drowned off the coast of Bermuda just hours after skipper Robert (Bobby) Lambe was plucked from mountainous seas after surviving a 20-hour ordeal.

The decision was taken to bring the massive search and rescue mission to an end last night after the US Coast Guard and Rescue Co-ordination Centre Bermuda/Bermuda Harbour Radio determined there was no chance of finding missing crewmen Alan Edness and Micah Battersbee alive.

Their fishing boat New Nuts had been overturned by a freak wave when it was about 80 miles north-east of Bermuda at 6.30 p.m. on Tuesday while it was searching for an abandoned yacht, the Altair.

Mr. Lambe, 34, was able to swim free of the boat, but it is believed his two crewmen were below deck and went down with the boat when it sank 20 minutes later.

Mr. Lambe was finally picked up yesterday at about 2.30 p.m. by American naval hospital ship the US Comfort after a remarkable 20 hours battling to stay alive in the water. He was said to be suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion, but otherwise in good health last night.

"We called off the rescue when darkness fell , and we are not resuming it tomorrow," said a Harbour Radio duty officer last night.

"After a de-brief with Mr. Lambe, we are confident that he was the only person who managed to get away from the boat, and also, based on survivability calculations, the likelihood of finding any other survivors is nil.

"The debris and Mr. Lambe who were found in the water were found in a fairly tight area. The area was covered from dawn until dusk by two US Coast Guard aircraft."

The family of long-time fisherman Mr. Edness, 56, from St. Anne's Road in Southampton, did not wish to comment yesterday.

And the family of 29-year-old young father Mr. Battersbee, from Devonshire, were too upset to talk last night after being informed that there was no hope of finding their loved one.

Mr. Lambe, 34, was picked up yesterday by the American warship three hours after a US Coast Guard C-130 plane, which spotted him floundering in the water, dropped him a life raft.

Mr. Lambe, from Beach Estate in Somerset, told the rescue ship that the New Nuts had been hit by a huge wave on Tuesday night, causing it to overturn, and it sank soon afterwards.

US Coast Guard spokesman Kim Wilder told The Royal Gazette: "He (Mr. Lambe) survived 20 hours with no life jacket and no survival gear.

"He would have been extremely exhausted. He told the Comfort the boat had been hit by a wave and didn't right itself, and sank 20 minutes later."

And last night, the Harbour Radio duty officer said everyone was surprised Mr. Lambe had been able to survive for so long in the water.

"We are certainly surprised that he managed to survive for so long," he said. "It shows that he had a great will to survive."

Mr. Lambe, who cheated death in 1997 when he was rescued at sea, was plucked out of 15 foot waves and 66 degree seas yesterday.

The New Nuts hadleft Robinson's Marina on Monday morning and joined the Soweto in a search to find the Altair, which was abandoned 300 miles off the Island in November.

A gale warning was posted on Monday morning, and by Tuesday, up to 20 foot seas, heavy spray, and gusts of up to 56 knots were whipping up off the Island.

The Soweto gave up the search and was safely back in Bermuda by 11 p.m. on Monday, but Mr. Lambe, who owned New Nuts, called Harbour Radio shortly before 6 p.m. to say things were fine and they would be staying at sea for another 24 hours.

He radioed into Harbour Radio again on Tuesday morning, but again, did not report anything unusual or troubling.

He was put on standby for a couple of seconds while the Harbour Radio officer put out a broadcast on another channel, however, when he returned to Mr. Lambe he had gone.

That was the last time anyone had contact with the New Nuts.

The Harbour Radio duty officer said last night that when Mr. Lambe called on Tuesday morning, he sounded fine and was asked to standby as the officer was in the middle of a broadcast on another channel.

"He was asked to go on standby for a few seconds, and he said fine. It's not like putting someone on hold on the telephone where you have a dead line.

"He could still speak directly to Harbour Radio if he needed to, but he didn't. If he had declared an emergency, obviously, we would have dealt with it immediately, but he didn't because everything was fine, at that point.

"It was many hours later when the freak wave hit the boat."

But it was Mr. Lambe's father, Robert Lambe Sr., who initially raised concern about the New Nuts on Tuesday when he became fearful for the boat in the stormy weather conditions.

He contacted Harbour Radio at about 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday to ask if anyone had heard from the fishing vessel, and was informed that the last call had been received that morning.

By 9.20 p.m. on Tuesday, Harbour Radio and the US Coast Guard's Co-Ordination Centre in Norfolk, Virginia, began picking up signals from New Nuts' emergency position indicating radio beacon, showing the vessel was between 70 and 110 miles north-east of Bermuda.

At 10.50 p.m. both agencies sent urgent broadcasts urging all vessels in the area to be on the look-out. Forty minutes later, the signals were narrowed down to a location 72 miles north-east of St. George's. Just after midnight, Harbour Radio requested the US Coast Guard send out a search aircraft, and a C-130 Hercules from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, was dispatched.

The plane left at 3 a.m. and reached the search area at 5.30 a.m. After circling around for more than two hours, it spotted an unused life raft canister, a life jacket and a sea cushion floating in the water.

The plane headed back to the US for refuelling, but a replacement from Elizabeth City spotted Mr. Lambe floating in the 15 foot seas at 11.48 a.m.

In the meantime, at 11 a.m., Marine and Ports had sent out the tug boat Powerful to join the search operation.

The Comfort, which was heading for the Persian Gulf region as part of President George W. Bush's preparations for war against Iraq, was diverted, and picked up an exhausted Mr. Lambe at 2.30 p.m.

Last night, it emerged the Comfort - packed with 12 operating rooms and more than 900 doctors and other medical staff - would not be diverting to Bermuda and would drop Mr. Lambe at its next, unnamed, port of call.

The Powerful headed back to Bermuda last night as did the search and rescue aircraft. It will return to Elizabeth City, NC this morning.

James Morrison, of Bermuda Weather Service, said the crew would have experienced a rapidly worsening storm on Monday with heavy spray, winds of up to 30 knots and "confused seas" as swells moved in a different direction from the gusts.

He said on Monday morning, the Weather Service predicted a gale for Tuesday and there was a small craft warning for Monday night.

But by Tuesday, there were sustained gale force winds of 30-40 knots, gusting up to 56 knots.

Malcolm Swan, the manager of Robinson's Marina, said: "We're all upset. It was a really seaworthy boat. They would go out long-line fishing and go out for three days to a week."