NEWINGTON, N.H. (AP) – The body of a ship crewman was recovered early Sunday morning by fellow crewmen and rescue workers after the man was buried by building material he was helping unload. Rescue workers and the ship’s crew worked for about 6 hours before recovering the body at about 2:30 a.m.

The man and the ship – the M.V. Pioneer, which is used to ship gypsum – are from the Ukraine.

Newington Fire Department Lt. David Low said initially the crew, with help from firefighters, used shovels and picks to dig through about eight feet of the gypsum, which is the consistency of loam with small rocks in it. As they got closer, two firefighters dug by hand until they reached part of the body and determined he was dead.

Then everyone backed off for fear more of the material, which was piled about 40 feet high in the hold, would collapsed, and it did, burying the body again. That is when the crew began the slow task of allowing the material to slip through the hopper opening in the floor of the hold onto a conveyor belt used to carry it to the dock.

“We have not had an incident like that as long as I’ve been working here,” said Low, an 18-year veteran of the department.

The ship was being unloaded at the Sprague Energy terminal, and the gypsum then is trucked less than a mile to the Georgia Pacific plant, where the wallboard is made.

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