Rescue ships collected scores of bloated corpses yesterday from choppy waters close to where an Indonesian ferry sank in the Java Sea, but search teams also spotted survivors on life rafts and dropped food and water to them, officials said.
Weeping relatives camped out at ports and a local hospital, desperate for news of the some 400 still missing from the ferry when it sank during a violent storm minutes before midnight on Friday.
So far, at least 157 people have been found alive, either packed into lifeboats, clinging on to debris or on beaches after swimming ashore, officials said. Dozens of bodies have either been spotted or collected.
"I am tired of crying," said Sipan, who had been staying at Rembang hospital waiting for news of his son.
"Dead or alive, I will accept his destiny. It is up to God. All I can do is keep waiting," he said.
Search official Hadi Siswanto said that rescue boats were picking up scores of bloated bodies yesterday that had so far been left in the sea because officials were concentrating their search for survivors.
Workers at Rembang Hospital constructed a makeshift morgue for the bodies.
Rescue chief Eko Prayitno said a helicopter yesterday spotted an unspecified number of people still alive in the sea. The crew dropped food and water to them and boats would try and pick them up later, he said.
Eleven survivors and two corpses arrived at Rembang port on Java's northern coast on a fishing boat early yesterday, authorities said.
Waluyo, 50, recalled holding onto a large tire and seeing two of his children lose their grip and drown.
"For 17 hours we held on, sometimes being turned over in the swell, but one by one the people fell off, including my two children," he said from a hospital on Sunday.
"I could not do anything apart from pray," Waluyo said.
Officials have given differing accounts of the numbers of people saved and bodies collected, hampered by poor communication and the fact that ships are bringing survivors to shore at several ports.
Suharto, director of the transportation ministry's sea and coast guard, said on Sunday that 177 people had been rescued, state news agency Antara reported. The transport minister said 157 people were alive.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged rescue teams to keep up the hunt.
"I'm constantly in contact with central and local officials about the efforts to save our brothers and sisters," he said at a prayer meeting in Jakarta.
"The floods and the sinking of the ship in the Java Sea are a test from Allah," he said.
Meanwhile a cargo ship carrying 11 people also sunk off Bali on Sunday.
Indonesian search and rescue teams have found all 11 passengers and crew from the ferry yesterday reports said.
Nine were rescued by a passing cargo ship after they were found floating in their lifejackets in the Java sea, ElShinta radio reported.
Two others had managed to make it to Pantai Bukti beach on the northeast of Bali on Sunday.
All 11 survivors, including six crew, were being treated at a hospital in Gerisik, in East Java.
The Sinar Baru was en route to Lombok from the port of Surabaya when it sank after strong currents and huge waves hit the vessel.
It was the third Indonesian ferry to sink in less than a week.
RSS