50-Foot Ferryboat Sinks Off Haiti; 180 Reported Drowned, 20 Rescued

A 50-foot ferryboat sank off Haiti’s western coast Tuesday, and at least 180 people drowned while 20 were rescued, the U.S. Embassy reported.

Jeffrey Lite, an embassy spokesman, said he received the information from the Haitian navy.

Radio Soleil, a Roman Catholic station in Port-au-Prince, reported Tuesday night that their correspondent on the island of Gonave, 30 miles west of the capital, reported that the privately owned vessel apparently was overloaded.

“The boat was overcrowded with both people and goods going to market, which was the cause of the tragedy,” the correspondent was quoted as saying.

No bodies have been recovered, he said.

Government officials said that the ferry, the Oklele, had left on its daily trip between Port-au-Prince and Gonave but radioed an SOS between noon and 1 p.m. The distress signal was picked up on Gonave, they said, and rescue vessels were dispatched and picked up the survivors.

The exact position of the sinking was not known, but it was believed to have been close to Gonave.

All of the dead and the survivors were residents of Gonave, according to Radio Soleil.

Gonave, a poor agricultural island of 50,000 people, has two towns, one with electricity installed by American Protestant missionaries.