Celebration turned to tragedy Thursday night, when at least 57 passengers on a leisure dhow drowned after the vessel capsized off the Bahraini coast. Some 137 people were aboard, mostly employees of an international construction company who had organized the floating dinner to mark the successful completion of a project.
Our deepest sympathy is extended to all families, friends and colleagues of the victims of this terrible accident, which comes just two months after the appalling tragedy involving Al-Salam Boccaccio ‘98, which turned turtle in the Red Sea with the loss of over 1,000 lives. On both terrible occasions, disaster struck at a high point in people’s lives and abruptly turned their joy and happiness into death and misery.
Strong evidence is already emerging that the Bahraini dhow was overloaded. Reliable sources report it was equipped to carry only 100 passengers. Even before the vessel cast off, there were concerns about its stability. Two invitees are said to have refused to board because of this. As the craft put to sea, one of the guests is said to have used the intercom to warn passengers not to crowd the upper deck but to stay below. It remains to be seen whether this advice did not add to the loss of life because so many people were trapped in the lower deck when the dhow capsized.
If the ship was in fact overcrowded, then in the final analysis the responsibility must rest with the captain for putting to sea and with the operators for allowing him to do so. Blame may also lie at the door of those who organized the party. It is easy to imagine the general ebullient mood that may have tempted those who could have stopped more guests crowding aboard, into throwing caution to the wind.
Whatever legal censure may follow for any such individuals who survived, they will also surely carry a heavy load of remorse for the rest of their lives. There is also the possibility that the dhow was not itself seaworthy and taking on too many passengers compounded the problem.
It is however wrong to prejudge the issue. The Bahraini authorities can be expected to carry out a full and exhaustive inquiry. But something was clearly wrong with the vessel or its load, which in one way or another contravened shipping regulations. Tragedies like these do not simply take place in poor Third World countries like Bangladesh and the Philippines, though they do happen there with unacceptable regularity. Last year, 21 US pensioners perished on Lake George when a pleasure boat sank. In 1989, 51 partygoers perished on London’s River Thames when the Marchioness pleasure steamer sank after a collision.
There will always be accidents but most could be avoided if regulations are both fully observed by ship owners and properly regulated by responsible authorities. When they are not, it is a scandal. Every shipping disaster provides important lessons that can stop a similar tragedy from occurring in the future. Hopefully this will be true of the horrors within the last two months.
