Tag Archives: Yangtze River

Photos: Inside China’s capsized cruise ship

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A picture is seen on the wall of a crew member dormitory inside the capsized Eastern Star cruise ship.(Reuters/China Daily)

Eleven days after a cruise ship capsized on China’s Yangtze River, killing at least 434 people, the country is still grappling with angry relatives and outraged citizens. Today, officials announced that a 60-member team is being formed to investigate the accident, which has left many questions unanswered.

Focus has turned to commemorating the victims, many of them elderly parents and grandparents, and compensating families. Mourners have been praying and burning incense and paper money along the Yangtze for the past week and a half—in Chinese funeral tradition, the first seven days is the most important period for honoring the deceased.

Rescuers have been working to recover bodies carefully from the ship, which was turned upright and lifted from the water last Friday, in hopes of returning them in a respectful state to their relatives. Perhaps in hopes of alleviating anger, Chinese state media have released photos of those efforts inside the ship.

Rescue workers stand on the river bank as the capsized cruise ship Eastern Star is pulled out of the Yangtze River.(Reuters/China Daily)
The control room of the Eastern Star cruise ship, which capsized on June 7th.(Reuters/China Daily)
Clocks at the passengers’ hall are seen inside the Eastern Star cruise ship, which capsized on the Jianli section of the Yangtze River, Hubei province, June 7, 2015. The Chinese characters on top of the clocks read “Voyage Schedule”, “Arrival” and “Departure.”(Reuters/China Daily)
A control panel is seen inside the Eastern Star cruise ship.(Reuters/China Daily.)
 
Hand marks, reportedly left by the rescue workers, are seen inside the Eastern Star cruise ship.(Reuters/China Daily)
 
Rescue workers search the capsized cruise ship.(Reuters/China Daily)
Searchers stand and bow to another body is found.

The capsized Yangtze cruise ship’s outer cabin doors were reportedly sealed shut

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The Eastern Star
The Eastern Star cruise ship that capsized on June 1 had undergone a retrofit in which passenger cabin doors that led directly out to the ship’s deck were sealed shut and turned into windows, according to the Beijing News (link in Chinese). That, among several other changes to the ship, made the vessel more dangerous and especially more prone to capsizing, the newspaper reported.

Beijing News has since deleted the report from its website but it remains accessible via its WeChat page , and includes before and after shots of the boat.

Each cabin on the ship used to have two doors, one leading to an interior corridor and one to the outer deck, the report said, but after the retrofit only the interior doors remained.

Unnamed ship inspectors and people who had worked on the Eastern Star before the retrofit told the paper that other amendments to the boat include replacing the fixed beds with wooden ones. This adds further safety risks, the report says, as unfixed beds can slide during winds, shift the boat’s center of gravity, and hasten a ship’s capsizing. They can also block the exits as passengers try to escape.

The retrofit was conducted in Chongqing in 1997, with the purpose of turning what was then a utilitarian ferry into a cruise ship. An unnamed company employee stated in the report that the ship was lengthened from 66 meters to 76.5 meters, which the report states was longer than regulations permit. Its previously flat bow was converted to its current pointed style to reduce drag and save on fuel costs.

So far no charges have been brought against either the captain of the ship or the company that owns it. The fact that the report was eventually pulled from the Beijing News website suggests that the government is trying to stifle discussion about the retrofit until it formulates a response, just as it has censored discussion and other reports about the accident.

1st glimpse at China ship as it emerges from river

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China Boat Sinks

Rescue workers prepare to approach the tourist ship Eastern Star after cranes righted the ship

Four days after the Eastern Star capsized along the Yangtze River with more than 450 people aboard, the cabins of the cruise ship emerged in full view for the first time Friday.

In a moment awaited by rescuers and families of the victims, cranes on barges pulled the iron chains attached to the overturned vessel and lifted upright the multi-decked, 251-foot (77-meter) -long ship.

It revealed top-deck cabins with smashed blue roofs jutting out of the river. Much of the water had to be drained from the wreckage and part of it is still submerged.

From the embankment of the Yangtze and nearby boats and barges, rescue workers in multi-color uniforms watched intently as the ship was being turned upright. After days and nights of diving under the wreckage and drilling holes into the hull in search of the missing, turning the ship back up will make the work easier.

The weather was sunny following drizzle and winds that hampered the operation for most of the week, and the waters appeared calm.