A U.S. Coast Guard crew based in the Caribbean to intercept Haitian refugees now works at a grislier task: fishing the bodies of shipwreck victims from the water and taking them home to Haiti.
The Coast Guard cutter Padre was the first of five American vessels to join the search for as many as 1,700 people feared dead after an overloaded ferryboat sank Tuesday night a few miles off Haiti's coast.For four hours Thursday, the 17-member Coast Guard crew fished out bodies, wrapped them in wool blankets and laid them on the deck. They retrieved 28 women and five children before deciding to head into port.
"I've picked up dead bodies on the sea before, but only single bodies - nothing this big," said Lt. Gary Thomas, the 28-year-old commander of the Padre.
At least 15 bodies remained on the seas when Thomas gave the order to steam away.
"We had so many bodies. We had to come in," he said, adding that another cutter, the Matagordo, was on the way. The Matagordo later delivered 20 bodies to morgue workers in Port-au-Prince.
Two Haitian navy patrol boats brought in nine bodies, and another U.S. cutter, the Dauntless, was heading to Port-au-Prince Friday with 75 more, said Vivian Walker, a U.S. Embassy press attache. The Padre headed out again after dropping off its load of bodies.
Thomas said the task was taking an emotional toll on his crew, some of them still teenagers.