Five sailors arrived in Bermuda on Monday to replace Johann Schulte crewmen who were killed and injured in an accident on the high seas last week.

The men, from Poland and the Philippines, will depart with their 465ft Isle of Man-registered tanker when local and British shipping officials have concluded their investigation of the accident.

In the meantime, the 59-year-old ship's bosun remains in intensive care at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, waiting to be airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Another injured crewman, a 39-year-old, was transported to the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts on Monday afternoon while a third, a 31-year-old, was able to fly home to the Philippines.

Yesterday, Bermuda Registry of Shipping principle marine surveyor Capt.

Patrick Nawaratne said the investigation into the accident, which killed two men, was continuing and "going well''.

He explained this involved four people in total, two from his office and two from the Isle of Man Department of Trade and Industry marine administration.

"It's a fairly comprehensive investigation involving interviews with just about everyone on the ship,'' he said.

"The basic purpose of it is to find out what happened so we can prevent that type of thing from happening again.'' Rescue Co-ordination Control (RCC) Bermuda helped organise a joint United States Air Force/Coast Guard rescue operation last Thursday after the captain of the Johann Schulte , a liquid gas tanker, reported his Chief Officer was killed and four others wounded when a huge wave knocked them into deck equipment about 800 miles east of Bermuda.

A second man, an able seaman, died of his injuries on Friday morning. Two US Air Force HH-60 Blackhawk helicopters extracted the three survivors by winch on Friday afternoon and transported them to the National Sports Centre in Prospect, where ambulances rushed them to hospital.

The two dead bodies of the crewmen were removed from the ship when it arrived at King's Wharf, Dockyard on Monday morning.

They were taken to the Hopital's mortuary where autopsies will be done by a local pathologist.

After this they will be transported home.

Capt. Nawaratne said five sailors had arrived in Bermuda, sent by the ship's owners Dorchester Marine Ltd. to replace those who were killed and injured.

The captain of the Johann Schulte , which was on its way to Portugal from Corpus Christi, Texas when the accident occurred, is hoping to continue on its voyage sometime today.