Capsized Ferry Righted; Recovery of Bodies Next

ZEEBRUGGE, Belgium —  A capsized British car ferry, spewing debris from its portholes, was winched upright in a mammoth salvage operation today and divers prepared to go aboard to recover up to 140 bodies.

Sixty-one bodies were recovered immediately after the March 6 accident. About 350 people survived.

Belgian police announced that the water-filled hulk of the Herald of Free Enterprise was successfully hauled into a near-vertical position after daylong efforts, clearing the way for the retrieval of corpses.

The bodies, nearly all Britons, are entombed on the ferry that flooded and keeled over on a routine cross-Channel trip from Zeebrugge to Dover in southeast England.

As the vessel’s submerged port side emerged from the water, salvage operators spotted several corpses pinned by furniture and other debris to the inside of walls and windows.

A reporter on board the Belgian minesweeper Zinnia, 500 yards from the wreck, said the lower part of a man’s body could be seen protruding from a porthole.

A mass of debris, including furniture and personal possessions, poured out from the vessel as it inched slowly upright.

A net was stretched across two barges down-current from the wreck to catch any bodies or debris that floated free.

Belgian and British naval divers were expected to board the ship and search by torchlight throughout the night to recover the bodies.

Maritime officials said they expected to find a large concentration of bodies in the cafeteria area in the upper area of the boat and in the crew’s quarters in the lower decks.

Smashed portholes where passengers and crew struggled frantically to escape on the night of the March 6 disaster became clearly visible as the hull yielded to the colossal pulling power exerted by two barges and three giant cranes.