DATE: Sunday, September 14, 1997            TAG: 9709140074

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A16  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: MONTROUIS, HAITI                  LENGTH:   46 lines

NAVY DIVERS TRY TO KEEP SUNKEN HAITI FERRY STABILIZED

Hampton Roads-based Navy divers Saturday raced to stabilize a capsized Haitian ferry containing hundreds of bodies, struggling to prevent it from sinking deeper into the sea.

About 200 bodies are trapped inside the Pride of Gonave, which sank off this fishing village Monday after an hour trip from Haiti's Gonave Island.

U.N. officials said about 50 people survived. About 100 bodies have been recovered, including 27 corpses that floated to the surface Friday and two more that washed up Saturday. Most were identified by clothing or jewelry.

Saturday morning, workers sprayed disinfectant on areas of the pebbled beach where bodies had washed up.

A U.S. ship from Panama was scheduled to arrive Saturday with more recovery equipment after the ferry slipped farther down a steep shelf about 650 feet offshore.

While waiting for the ship, Navy divers tried to secure the ferry temporarily with a cable strung from the trunk of a mango tree to the stern of the vessel, which is under 120 feet of water.

The Navy team dispatched to Haiti includes 15 divers from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2 at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, plus two communications specialists from Navy explosive ordnance disposal units at Little Creek and Fort Story.

Earlier in the week, the Navy divers and a team of Canadian divers with the U.N. peacekeeping mission recovered dozens of bodies.

On Friday, bereaved relatives grew angry when Haitian President Rene Preval announced that they would no longer be allowed to claim bodies because they would be too decomposed and not identifiable.

In Haiti's voodoo religion, bodies have to be recovered to receive the last rites that allow a spirit to find eternal peace. Preval, however, has proposed a mass grave and a national funeral.

But U.S. military officials vowed they would eventually recover all the bodies.

``If there are bodies down there, we will bring them up and we will stay here until we have finished,'' said Lt. Stewart Upton, a spokesman for the U.S. military group in Haiti. ``If it takes two weeks, then we'll be here two weeks.'' KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT BOAT FATALITIES HAITI

U.S. NAVY

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