17 U.S. Sailors Drown as Boat Capsizes

A rented boat capsized in rough Mediterranean waters early today while ferrying about 100 U.S. sailors back from shore leave to the aircraft carrier Saratoga. Police said they recovered 17 bodies.

Before the latest police report, an American official confirmed 11 deaths and said nine men were still missing.

The police report came after divers began searching the hull of the sunken ferry boat for victims.

At least 33 sailors were taken to Israeli hospitals for treatment, an Israeli doctor said. Police gunboats, helicopters and rescue vessels, which plucked another 42 seamen from the water and took them on to the Saratoga, continued scouring Haifa Bay before dawn.

An estimated 1,650 American servicemen from the Saratoga and at least three escort ships disembarked at Haifa on Friday for Christmas leave.

The Saratoga, part of the U.S. Sixth Fleet based in Italy, is stationed in the eastern Mediterranean as a battle group included in the multinational force opposing Iraq. The carrier has a crew of about 6,200.

According to sailors at the scene and a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the boat was not a U.S. naval vessel as originally reported by authorities, but was a privately rented Israeli launch.

“It was overloaded at the rear and because of the high seas, water started coming over the stern,” said one young sailor, who spoke on condition he not be identified. “Once it started coming over, it capsized very quickly.”

An official at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, also speaking on condition of anonymity, reported 11 dead and nine missing before the police report later in the day.

Kip Burke, commander, Sixth Fleet Staff, based in Gaeta, Italy, said an estimated 100 sailors were aboard the boat. He said an investigation had begun into the accident but he was uncertain how far off shore the boat was when the 1:30 a.m. incident occurred.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said the identities of the dead sailors were not immediately released.