Safety on the Waters

February 3, 2006 — -- Last year in the United States, there were 757 boating deaths, most from recreational boating. Seventeen of those who died were commercial passengers.

Experts say extra crew can be critical in an emergency. "To direct people to where to find life jackets, to help them put the life jackets on if they had to leave the vessel, how to get off the vessel safely, very important," said retired U.S. Coast Guard Commander David Smith.

Recent passenger ship disasters:

• The Ethan Allen, which capsized in Lake George, N.Y., killing 20 people, was in violation of state law during its sightseeing cruise.

• Three ferries sank in Bangladesh's rivers within one week, killing at least 148 people in May 2005.

• The MV Lighting Sun ferry sank in the Meghna River, south of Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing at least 61 people with some 100 others reported missing in May 2004.

• Bangladesh's MV Nasrin-1 ferry sinks in the monsoon-swollen Meghna River, killing up to 400 people in what is believed to be the country's biggest shipping disaster, on July 8, 2003.

• Senegal's state-run overcrowded ferry, the Joola, sinks off the coast of Gambia, killing more than 1,800 people on Sept. 26, 2002.

• Nearly 400 people die when an overcrowded ferry with mostly Indonesian asylum seekers sinks off the island of Java on Oct, 19, 2001.

Sixty years ago, the worst shipping disaster of the last century occurred, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. It was carrying 10,600 wounded civilians and soldiers when it was torpedoed by a Russian submarine on Jan. 30, 1945, 20 miles off the Polish port of Gdansk. There were fewer than 1,000 survivors -- a casualty toll of more than 9,600.