Foul smell, decomposing bodies affecting salvage team of sunken ferry

MANILA, Philippines – Divers searching for bodies in the wreck of the M/V Princess of the Stars off Romblon are vomiting because of the foul smell coming from within the ship.

The bodies of the passengers and crew that sunk with the ship have been underwater for the past four months.

An official of the salvage firm undertaking the retrieval operation said they have already recovered 40 bodies.

 They have combed three-four of Deck C and would soon move to Deck B where, the cabins are located, the official added.

Rod Bella, Harbor Star project manager, said they are already on the third day of phase two, which consist of retrieving the bodies from the vessel. “The divers sometimes feel that they are close to vomiting, you could hear the sounds they make from the video when they are underwater and especially when they are already lifting the body bag from the water onto the ship,” he said.

Bella said apart from the smell, the divers were also slightly disturbed seeing the bodies, which are already in advanced stages of decomposition, and were falling apart as they placed them in body bags.

“This is one of the reasons why we provide entertainment in our camp in Sibuyan Island,” he said.

“We have a karaoke to help them forget the troubled figures they saw during the retrieval operations.”

Bella said after the divers have completed the retrieval of the bodies, they will undergo psychological tests.

The divers also go through a decontamination chamber after every dive, where they bathe in water mixed with chlorine to remove bacteria which they could have acquired from the accident site, he added.

Bella said as of 5 p.m. yesterday, the divers have already recovered 40 bodies.

“We have already completed three-fourths of Deck C which is the economy section and after that we would proceed to Deck B where the cabins are located,” he said.

“But Deck C is much easier because it is an open space and the light is better that is why we were able to accomplish so much in just three days.”

Bella said they might not find in the ship the more than 500 missing passengers and crew announced by Sulpicio Lines Inc. 

 “I don’t think that we will find 500 bodies inside the ship because we have already covered three-fourths of Deck C and we only found 40 bodies,” he said.

“I believe that most of the passengers and crew jumped ship or fell overboard just before the ship capsized.”

Bella said phase two of the retrieval operation would become more difficult once the divers enter the ship’s cabins.

“The divers would have to pass through hallways that have poor visibility and they had to inspect every room for bodies,” he said.

“It would take two to three weeks to finish the two decks.”

Memorial to rise in Romblon

A marble marker will rise on the coast of San Fernando in Romblon in memory of the passengers that sunk with the Princess of the Star at the height of typhoon “Frank” last July.

Coast Guard Commandant Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said marker will be built on the coast fronting the waters where the ill-fated ship lies upside down.

“The memorial which be made of marble will contain the names of the dead and the missing” he said.

The site will also serve as a memorial park, where relatives of the victims of the Princess of the Stars tragedy can offer prayers and flowers to their departed love ones.

Dindo Rios, former town mayor of San Fernando town, told The STAR that Sibuyan Sea off Romblon is a graveyard of thousand of victims of natural calamities and naval battles for centuries.

It was the scene of one of the greatest naval battles of World War II and shipwrecks since it was used by as shipping route during the Galleon Trade in the 16th century, he added.

Rios said the sinking of the Princess of the Stars is just a part of the cycle of man-made and natural sea disasters in the area

“Sibuyan Sea has been the graveyard of thousands of lost victims of natural and man made disasters,” he said.

 Rios said on Oct. 4,1944, the second biggest Japanese battleship Musashi sank in Sibuyan Sea with more than 1,000 crewmen.

Survivors who swam to shore in Sibuyan Island were killed by guerillas, he added.

Rios, a professional diver, said several kilometers from the wreck of the Princess of the Stars are the remnants of the Spanish galleon Ciriaca, which sunk while en route to Mexico in the early days of the Galleon Trade in the 16th century.

Hundreds of people went down with the ship, he added.

The 58-year-old former mayor said a Sulpicio Lines vessel, the Doña Paz sunk with about 4,000 passenger when it collided with the tanker Tablas while entering Sibuyan Sea.

Another ship of  Sulpicio Lines, the Princess of the Orient, also sank in the vicinity, he added.   — With Perseus Echeminada