John van Dane Berg stars into the sea where his father disappeared seven decades ago – lost in a storm a few days before his birth. Now at the age of 70, he is ready to find the smallest piece of his father’s remains.
In Urk, a fishing village in Northern Netherlands, the sea has long been a lifetime for families – but often took loved ones in turn.
Some bodies never surfaced. Others washed ashes on the German or Danish shores and buried in anonymous graves.
Despite the tragedy, Van Dane Berg – Last of six children – became a fisherman like his brothers, defying his mother’s terror, saying that the North Sea would also claim his sons.
“We never found his body,” he told AFP in a low voice, mumbling under his hat.
But after decades of uncertainty, advances in DNA Technology and Artificial Intelligence have given renewed hopes to van Dane Berg.
Researchers are now able to match more accurately with living relatives, giving families a chance to mourn the long -awaited north and finally.
Nicholas Tukat/AFP through Getty Image 
“Many families still gaze at the front door, hoping that their beloved-one will run through it,” an Urk resident Tun Hakwort said, who serves as a new foundation spokesperson to identify and identify lost fishermen in the sea.
“All drowning boats have been mapped. Using modern technology, we look at the weather and streams, using modern technology, to guess that the fishermen may be washed ashes.”
Missing man returned to family for 47 years
Foundation, identity gazochat (sought identity), aims to list all unknown tombs on the banks of the North Sea, which is expected to identify the remains.
New discoveries have already produced fruit. A body was recently taken out on a small island, schiermonnikoog in the north of the Netherlands, and returned to the family.
“This man was missing for 47 years. After this time, this new method of DNA and work made it possible to find out that he came from Urk,” Hakwort said.
Another Haqwort, French Haqwort, leads the foundation with the support of his two brothers in Urk, a tight-sore Protestant community where some family names are often again again.
The three people, who all have lost a relative in the sea, dedicate their free time to search for the missing.
“With AI, we discover press articles published after a body washed ash, possibly in specific circumstances,” 44, France Hakwort said.
“We record all this information in a database whether we can install a link. If yes, we contact local authorities if they can remove the body.”
The Netherlands led other North Sea countries, identifying the missing, said, “About 90 percent of unknown bodies provoked all DNA profiles stored in a European database.”
He said that in view of normal fishing areas and prevalent streams, the Urk fishermen are more likely to be buried on the German or Danish coast, he said.
The Foundation has called the public to help the public identify unknown tombs in Germany and Denmark.
“Denmark and Germany are particularly very important at this time, because we hope that many fishermen have washed ashes there. All help is welcome, we also want to appeal for the holidays”, France Hawkwort Het Ukerland told the newspaper,
The foundation mainly works with volunteers and has to do with money from donors and sponsors. Hawkwort told Nos Recently a member of the public went to the donated 5,000 euros.
“It remains an open wound”
John Van Dan Berg runs his fingers in his father’s name, which was engraved on a memorial with a view of the Urk beach to honor the lost fishermen.
The list is long. More than 300 names – father, brothers and sons, back in the 18th century with stretch.
About 30 fishermen were never found in the names. Kees Korf is missing at the age of 19 since the age of 1997. In 2015, Americano Martins, 47 ,.
A statue of a woman, her back turned to the sea, represents all these mothers and wives, who expects their beloved-one return.
Van Dane Berg says, “My father disappeared during a storm during a cold in 1954.”
“One morning he moved towards the port to the North Sea. He was not going to go for a long time because I was about to be born.”
His uncle, who was riding, later said that his father was on the deck when the wild waves flipped the boat.
The tragedy still bothers the family.
Van Dane Borg said, “When he pulled a net on the deck with fish, my elder brothers always feared that something could happen that looks like a human,” said Van Dan Berg.
In 1976, his uncle’s boat disappeared with his two cousins, who are on board even at the age of 15 and 17.
He was among those who found the body of the biggest life jury after four months.
Others never found.
He said, “One day does not go without thinking about all those people, and that is why I participate in the discoveries and give my DNA, because it is an open wound,” he said.
“I would like to have at least a small bone of my father to keep my mother’s grave.”
