Survivors Tell of Panic as Boat Sank

He clung to a log in the stormy South China Sea for four days before a fishing boat finally found him.

Junaedi Sapin is one of only 20 people known to have survived when the Arta Rimba ship sank Saturday night with hundreds of people aboard. The overloaded cargo ship had no permit to take passengers but was crammed with low-paid timber workers.

Rescuers found Junaedi, 37, on Wednesday and continued an air and sea search Thursday. However, they doubt that they will find more survivors among as many as 311 people still missing after the 100-foot ship sank on its way from Borneo to Sumatra.

With the engine disabled and the overworked bilge pumps out, waves crashed over the deck and water gushed through the hull, survivors said. The radio was also broken, and the captain burned piles of clothes, hoping that a passing craft might take notice.

Without enough life jackets, panicked crew members and passengers built makeshift rafts. Others grabbed anything that they thought could float and jumped overboard. In the final minutes, some tore up wooden planks before abandoning ship.

Most apparently slipped beneath the waves.

With no Mayday message received, rescuers were slow to locate the sinking vessel.

The few who survived remain hospitalized, most too weak or traumatized to speak of their ordeal.

One, identified as Aspar, 27, told doctors that he stayed afloat by holding onto a plank for two days. He lost a brother and a nephew.

Grim tales of unseaworthy boats capsizing are common in Indonesia. Across the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago, vessels with lax safety features are a standard way to get around.

So far, only one body has been recovered. Officials said Thursday that, if no more survivors are found, the sinking of the ship would be one of Indonesia’s worst maritime disasters in three decades.

The 33-year-old captain was rescued by a cargo ship after two days of floating in the sea.

“When the ship’s crew found a leak under the engine room, we had five hours, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., to prepare the rescue,” Capt. Hermanto said. “We distributed 191 life jackets and built three rafts of floating drums.

“I don’t know what was wrong with the radio because we suddenly couldn’t make calls, only receive them.”

The motorized sailing ship was not licensed to carry passengers, the newspaper Kompas quoted a maritime official as saying.

The official said neither the ship’s permit nor the captain’s routine departure notice to port authorities listed any passengers.