Toll in Thames Collision at 29; 2 on Barge Held

At least 29 people were confirmed dead and up to 30 others were still missing here late Sunday, nearly 24 hours after a 1,500-ton dredging ship literally ran over the top of a Thames River party boat full of disco-dancing young people celebrating the birthday of a friend.

Police arrested the captain and first mate of the dredge ship Bowbelle and said they are looking into “what could be a serious criminal matter.”

The collision occurred early Sunday morning, only about 20 minutes after the pleasure boat Marchioness headed downriver from its central London berth for what was to be an all-night party.

Disappeared in Seconds

Survivors and other witnesses described the collision as being “like a truck running over a bicycle” and said that the party boat disappeared in 25 feet of murky, tide-swollen Thames River water within seconds of impact.

Police said that 89 people who either jumped or were thrown free of the doomed boat were rescued minutes after the incident but that as many as 30 others are still unaccounted for. The missing include Stephen Faldo, captain of the Marchioness, and Antonio Vasconcellos, whose 26th birthday had occasioned the party.

Most of the dead, whose identities had not yet been revealed late Sunday, were reportedly in their 20s and were trapped inside the Marchioness when it went down.

The body of one woman was found eight miles upriver, carried there by the strong tide that causes the level of the Thames to vary daily by as much as 12 feet. But 28 others were only discovered late Sunday afternoon, when police and fire rescue workers, aided by divers, were finally able to raise the shattered hull of the pleasure boat.

Searchers had still not been able to check the engine room and bilges of the stricken craft late Sunday night, and part of the boat’s superstructure, where couples had been dancing at the moment of impact, was still missing.

Since there was no passenger list for the party cruise, it was also still unclear exactly how many people had been aboard the Marchioness, which was cleared by maritime authorities to carry up to 149 passengers and two crew members. But others said that there may have been only 120 or fewer on board.

It may be several days before the final toll is known.

Rolled Underneath the Dredger

The huge dredger apparently ran into the stern of the 90-ton party boat as both were passing under Southwark Bridge, heading east toward the Tower of London, at about 1:40 a.m. Sunday. The impact spun the smaller boat sharply around, across the Bowbelle’s path. The larger ship then hit the pleasure boat again, in the side, rolling it over and underneath the Bowbelle.

“There was a bump on the stern. The boat spun around and the dredger ran right over it,” said a spokeswoman for Tidal Cruises, owners of the Marchioness. “There was no time to do anything. It happened instantly. They saw the big anchor over their shoulder and the ship was on top of them.”

“It hit us in the side, smashed into us, and went straight over us,” confirmed survivor Mike Mosbacher, 22, a London art student. He said he escaped by diving through an open cabin window on the party boat’s top deck. “There were people swimming in the water and people screaming. I . . . swam to the side (of the river). The boat must have gone down in less than three minutes. The people downstairs--there’s no way they would have got out.”

Passengers on a second party boat that happened to be nearby at the time threw life preservers to those in the water or jumped into the river themselves to help survivors. They took 28 from the Marchioness on board their craft.

Survivors were taken to several nearby hospitals, although injuries were minimal. One woman suffered a broken leg, but most were treated for shock and exposure.

Grim Watch for Bodies

Police boats, alerted by witnesses, were on the scene within minutes. They used powerful searchlights to look for survivors. Given the still-rising tide, the search quickly spread upriver. Later, the police were joined by rescue service and military helicopters. Officers were posted as lookouts on other bridges across the Thames, keeping a grim watch for wreckage or bodies.

After the tide began to flow back toward the sea, the search shifted downriver. As two huge recovery barges began the job of raising the hull of the stricken ship, officials lowered the massive Thames Barrier, a flood control wall near the mouth of the river, to hold back the tide and ease the job of rescuers.

Divers nevertheless found conditions “extremely dark and extremely dangerous” around the sunken pleasure boat, according to police spokesman Tony Speed.

Detective Michael Purchase, the officer heading the police inquiry, told a press conference late Sunday that “there could very easily be 60 casualties” by the time the full toll is known. “We are looking into what could be a serious criminal matter,” he said.

Charges Not Revealed

He did not reveal any specific charges against the captain and first mate of the dredge ship, but confirmed that they had been arrested. Five other crew members of the vessel were being detained as witnesses.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who had been vacationing in Austria, cut short her trip to visit the scene of this latest in a string of disasters that have plagued British transport in recent months. Noting that the victims this time were mostly young people, she called it “a tragedy . . . of the first order.”

The government’s junior transportation minister, Michael Portillo, said that in addition to the police inquiry, the seven-week-old Marine Accident Investigation Branch had already begun its own probe of the incident.