Ocean Viking's largest ever rescue - witnessed first-hand

The sky and the water are both the colour of the night, inseparable from one another.

With the exception of the faint glimmer of a Libyan gas platform in the far distance, the horizon had all but disappeared.

Onboard the Ocean Viking search-and-rescue vessel, the bridge had five hours earlier been alerted of numerous people on a boat somewhere in the Libyan search-and-rescue region.

Details were scant, and - with the Libyan coast guard making record interceptions - the chanc...