Bahrain Boat, Captain Not Licensed

Passengers expressed worries over the precarious balance of a traditional dhow-turned-pleasure boat, which swayed dangerously even before it set off on its cruise, ending with the vessel flipping over during a sharp turn, drowning 57 people, a British survivor said Saturday.

The dhow, an ancient form of sailboat used in the Gulf, had a permit only for use as a floating restaurant, not to go on passenger cruises, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Also, the boat's captain, who has been detained for questioning, was not licensed to pilot the craft, he said.

"According to Coast Guard records and the Tourism Board, the boat was registered as a floating boat, but not as a cruiser permitted to sail," ministry spokesman Col. Tariq al-Hassan told The Associated Press.

The owner had applied for a sailing permit but it had not yet been granted, he said.

The dead included 21 Indians and 15 Britons, including a number of top executives involved in the construction of Bahrain's World Trade Center, a nearly completed complex of two 50-story skyscrapers in the shape of sails that are to be the tiny Gulf island nation's tallest buildings.

The construction firm Murray and Roberts had rented the dhow, the Al-Dana, for a party celebrating the towers' construction. But during the cruise Thursday night, the craft tipped during a turn, sending people dancing on the upper deck sliding into the water. It then flipped entirely, trapping passengers dining on the lower deck.

Simon Hill, a manager with the firm who survived the capsizing, said the boat had swayed even before it left shore, "causing several people to feel uneasy. By 7:40 p.m., 16 people had disembarked," he said.

He said a representative from the tour operator through which the boat was chartered urged people to move below deck to distribute weight more evenly, then spoke to the boat's captain and owner. "We asked the captain if he was happy to leave, and if he wasn't he should say so, and we would not leave. At 8 o'clock we sailed," Hill told a press conference in Manama.

Al-Hassan told a news conference Friday night that 140 people were aboard the Al-Dana when dinner was served while it was docked at the harbor, but 14 of them disembarked before the vessel sailed.

South Africa-based construction firm Murray & Roberts Group said in a statement that "more than 50 senior employees from various companies working on the World Trade Center Project have been lost."

The dead included the project's chairman, David Evans, 56, a Briton; and project director Will Nolan, 50, also British, the Web site said.

The shell of the office tower complex, with its sail-shaped twin towers, dominates Manama's waterfront. According to the Web site, the project will become "the world's first to suspend electricity-generating wind turbines between two commercial tower structures."

Murray & Roberts Chief Executive Brian Bruce said the company was launching an investigation into the choice of the Al-Dana as the venue for a celebration.

"We are deeply shocked by this tragedy. Our sympathy and condolences go out to all those who have been affected," Bruce said.

The death toll from other nations was: five South Africans, five Filipinos, four Pakistanis, four from Singapore and one each from Germany, Ireland and South Korea.

The only American aboard the vessel, a civilian woman working for the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain, survived.

Jaikumar George, an Indian survivor, suggested the Al-Dana was not designed to carry so many passengers.

"The stability of the boat wasn't good," he said from his bed in Salmaniya Hospital in Manama. He had bandages on his head, arms and legs with deep cuts and bruises.

"There was something wrong with that boat. It was oscillating so strongly when other boats were stable."

George, an engineer with the Swiss firm Hilti, said the vessel began rocking with increasing force. Passengers on the upper deck fell over and slid along the deck, which shifted the boat's weight to one side. His colleagues spilled into the sea and the boat flipped, drowning many diners on the lower deck, he added.

He and other survivors clung to the capsized vessel until rescuers arrived, while those trapped inside drowned.

"I thought I was going to go down. I was totally under the boat," he said. "I called my God and he brought me up. God gave me the courage to hold my breath and push away from under the boat."