Belgian Official, Ship’s Owners Dispute Ferry Disaster Death Toll

Belgian Transport Minister Herman de Croo continued to insist Saturday that the death toll from last week’s ferry disaster could be over 200, while the ship owners maintained the figure is 134.

De Croo said on Flemish radio that official figures he obtained from maritime authorities showed 45 people died and about 164 were missing after the British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise sank off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on March 6.

The minister told Parliament on Friday that the number rescued from the wreck was only 349 and not 409 as previously reported.

De Croo said Saturday the discrepancy was due to the fact that children under 4 years old were not on the passenger list and that other people may have boarded the ship unnoticed.

Confusion in Counting

Some passengers who escaped had been counted twice in the confusion on Friday evening, boosting the rescued total, as emergency services fought to save more lives, he added.

But a spokesman for the ship’s owners, Townsend Thoresen, told reporters by telephone from Zeebrugge that the company stood by its figures of 409 survivors; 55 dead, of which 49 had been identified, and 79 people missing.

The ferry still lies on its side in 36 feet of water just outside Zeebrugge harbor where it keeled over after filling with water on its way to Dover, England.

The Townsend Thoresen spokesman said De Croo was right in saying that children under 4 years of age were normally not registered on the passenger list.

But Townsend Thoresen based its figures on a head count taken by its staff when people boarded the ferry, he said.

The spokesman said he could not rule out the possibility mentioned by De Croo that other people may have been taken onto the ship secretly by truck drivers.

But before issuing figures, the company had checked them very carefully, and the huge gap in the number of people aboard given by the minister and the company was unlikely, he said.

Salvage operations on the 7,951-ton car ferry continued Saturday in bright sunshine and calm seas, and the spokesman said work was going ahead on schedule.

Smit Tak, a Dutch salvage company, began driving 30-yard, 22-ton steel girders into the seabed, a job that is expected to take up to eight days.

The girders will anchor two barges with powerful hydraulic cranes that will pull the 7,951-ton vessel upright.

Salvage workers said that it was unlikely any more bodies would be brought up before the ship is righted as diving conditions are hazardous, with falling debris hampering work.

The final body count is only expected when salvage workers right the ship in about three weeks if the weather remains fair.

Memorial Service

Meanwhile in Dover, about 1,000 people, many in tears, filled a parish church Saturday to commemorate those killed in the ferry disaster.

Some crew members from the stricken ferry had lived in the Dover area.

Every available seat in the small Anglican Church of St. Mary was occupied 40 minutes before the service began.

The Rt. Rev. Richard Third said relatives of the dead crew might have thought the ferry job carried little danger, which meant they were unprepared for the tragedy.

“Is it now too late to tell them that we love them?” the prelate asked. “Surely not. Love is stronger than death. . . . The waters will not drown it.”