3 bodies pulled from sunken cargo ship off coast of N.L.

French authorities have recovered the bodies of three of four crewmen who had been missing since the sinking of a St-Pierre-Miquelon cargo vessel off the south coast of Newfoundland on Dec. 2.

French divers used a submersible vessel to pull the bodies of Jean Guy Urdanabia, Thierry Duruty and Robert Marcil out of the ship, which was under 134 metres of water. The body of Robert Bechet could not be found.

There are no plans to salvage the ship.

Jean Pierre Bercot, the prefect of the eight French-owned islands of St-Pierre-Miquelon, confirmed the bodies had been found, but wouldn't say when the recovery took place.

He said funerals will be held for the men on Thursday.

The 36-metre ship, known as the Cap Blanc, was travelling from Argentia, N.L., to the St-Pierre-Miquelon islands with a load of road salt when it sank in rough seas.