Cruise Boat Capsizes Off Bahrain; 57 Dead:

Posted By: Martha Buffett

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

Bahrain television quoted the owners as saying the boat, an Arab dhow with high sides, was overloaded when it left port and capsized when most of its 137 passengers moved to one side.

U.S. Navy helicopters and divers stationed in Bahrain with the 5th Fleet ended their search for survivors early Friday after Bahrain authorities said they no longer were needed, a Navy spokesman, Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, told The Associated Press.

Sixty-seven people were rescued but 13 remained missing from the ship, called the al-Dana, Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Tarik al-Hassan said Friday. Some of the missing might have tried to swim ashore since the boat overturned less than a mile off the coast, he added.

"God willing, there will be other survivors," he said.

One of the survivors was an unidentified American woman working for the Navy base.

Al-Hassan declined to give a cause for the accident, saying there might be several factors. The ship's captain, a foreigner, survived and was being interrogated.

The victims included at least 17 Indians and 13 Britons, officials said.

The official Bahrain News Agency said the al-Dana was on an evening cruise that was to last several hours. Television footage showed the boat capsized but not sunk, with rescue workers walking on its brown hull.

The Al-Dana was a modern version of the traditional dhow sailboat common throughout the Persian Gulf. Made of wood and fiberglass, it was powered by motor. Because it had no sail, it had room for dining and dancing during harbor cruises and jaunts to nearby islands.

Television stations showed what they called a file photo of the al-Dana, which appeared to be 60-70 feet long with two decks.

The Indian embassy said the boat was owned and operated by a Bahraini company, Al Kobaisi Travel and Tours.

The passengers were celebrating the completion of the structure of Manama's World Trade Center in a party organized by several corporations, India's ambassador to Bahrain, Balkrishna Setty, told the AP.

Interior Minister Sheik Al Kahlifa said most of the passengers were employees of a Bahrain-based company.

"Things were going all right, people were dancing, people were having fun, but the boat was very crowded," Khalil Mirza, a Bahraini survivor, told the AP.

The boat then listed as it made a left turn soon after leaving the harbor, he said.

"People were scared in the water. They were fighting with each other and screaming," he said.

Mirza said he made a distress call using his cell phone. Bahrain's coast guard confirmed that a survivor made the distress call using a mobile phone.

Prime Minister Sheik Khalifah bin Salman Al Khalifah told Bahraini TV he directed the Interior Ministry to investigate if the ship was seaworthy, had a license to operate cruises and had followed safety regulations.

The 25-member WTC-project team of the South Africa-based Murray & Roberts Group was on board the boat, the company said on its Web site. Four were dead and six were unaccounted for. The shell of the two-tower WTC-complex dominates Manama's waterfront.

"We are deeply shocked by this tragedy. Our sympathy and condolences go out to all those who have been affected," Chief Executive Brian Bruce said.

Rescue teams brought bodies covered with white sheets to shore, and hospital workers hurried them to waiting ambulances. Scores of officials and relatives waited on the dock watching small rescue boats with flashing blue lights bring more bodies and survivors.

Television footage showed survivors, appearing to be in shock and with their hair still wet, squatting on the floor of a hospital. Many of them covered themselves with blankets. One male survivor was shown being treated for cuts to the head.

Survivors, some with blood streaming down their faces, hugged each other. Several wept uncontrollably as friends and relatives tried to calm them. Some survivors needed assistance as they disembarked from a rescue boat that brought them to shore.

The dead included 17 Indians, 13 British citizens and nationals of Pakistan, South Africa, the Philippines, Singapore, Germany and Ireland, al-Hassan said. Eleven had not been identified.

Bahrain is an oil-exporting and refining archipelago of 688,000 off the coast of Saudi Arabia. The U.S. Navy has had a presence there for more than 50 years.

The capsizing of the ship came about two months after an Egyptian ferry sank in the Red Sea, killing about 1,000 people. The vessel was en route from the Saudi port of Dubah to the Egyptian port of Safaga when it went down before dawn about 60 miles off the Egyptian coast.

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