That's nothing...this little baby packs in 1,200 people, 350 automobiles and 77 tractor trailers.
The Newfoundland Ferry. What a ride.
Posted on 09/27/2002 12:54:48 PM PDT by HAL9000
DAKAR, Senegal, Sep 27, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- An ocean ferry sank off West Africa in a fierce gale, leaving 88 confirmed dead Friday and bodies of more than 670 others believed trapped inside the capsized vessel.
Thirty-two of the 796 crew members and passengers were known to have survived, rescued by boats that had been in the area and responded to an alert.
The state-owned Joola ferry sank in the Atlantic Ocean about 11 p.m. (2300 GMT) en route to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from the south of the country.
Dive teams recovered 88 bodies, and believed corpses of the remainder to be trapped inside the ferry, which was in one piece and floating on its side, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine center. The center's divers were helping spearhead the search.
Divers spotted a number of corpses through the ferry windows, Diop said.
"Now, I'm afraid, it's a matter of recovering bodies," he said.
Searchers were waiting for military divers with equipment to cut into the boat, he said.
Families and friends rushed to the port in Dakar, sobbing and pounding their heads on walls.
"God have mercy! Pray! Pray everyone!" one woman, waiting with the rest for news of loved ones, pleaded. "Stop crying!"
A crowd of hundreds later surrounded the locked gates of navy offices, demanding word of the search and rescue and its results. Among the throng, a woman screamed and tore her hair, sobbing for word of her daughter.
"Tell us whether she's alive," the woman shouted. "Can we please know whether she's alive?"
Senegal declared three days of national mourning Friday as the search for victims continued. Prime Minister Mame Madior Boye and other state officials went to the port to be with families.
President Abdoulaye Wade cut short a trip to France. Speaking briefly to reporters upon his return home, he pledged an investigation.
The ferry had left Senegal's southern region of Casamance.
It went down in strong gales and rain off Gambia, a former English colony that divides north and south Senegal.
Ferries are the main way of transportation between north and south Senegal, in part because travel by road is slowed by border checks passing through Gambia. Merchants carrying dried fish, mangos and other goods from verdant Casamance make up many of the usual travelers aboard.
The first corpses retrieved from the accident were being taken back to the port Friday afternoon. Refrigerated trucks waited at the port for the victims.
Angry men thronging the port denounced authorities, claiming the ferry had been riding low on one side, and never should have been allowed out of port.
Media reports said the ferry had undergone repairs, and had only recently returned to service after months in dock.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Just a simply rule of thumb.
That's nothing...this little baby packs in 1,200 people, 350 automobiles and 77 tractor trailers.
The Newfoundland Ferry. What a ride.
Yup. And having been aboard a large ferry several times in bad weather, I can only imagine the horror and panic that must have gone on.
My prayers too for the families and survivors.
Birthed with a foot in Charon's ferry
Fighting to breathe, battling to live
Ominously, no mercy, in swift fashion
Atropos hovers with evil intent close by
Terrible, vigilant with her deadly shears
Eternally waiting to snip life's thread.
A horrible tragedy, and all too common in these backward regions of the world.
Leni
Gee, wonder why they didn't make a movie about that?
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