A few years ago, either TLC, Discovery or A&E, was showing a program about a ferry that sank. I believe it was in Indonesia. It wasn't on the scale of this disaster, but a large loss of life all he same. The story focused primarily on a British couple. The handful of survivors were mainly Westerners. It seems as though most of the locals couldn't swim.
The gal is credited with keeping one guy alive, she kept talking to him , convincing him he could stay afloat.
They were afloat for several days. She described how she had to swin away from people, they wanted to cling to her. She knew that they would drag her down, as she'd seen it happen to others.
Check this out: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1571650/posts