MV Bukoba
MV Bukoba is the name of a passenger steamer that sank 30 kilometers from Mwanza, Tanzania on May 21 1996, killing nearly one thousand people. The boat had been used to transport passengers and cargo between Lake Victoria ports Bukoba and Mwanza.
The steamer's capacity was 430, but around 800 people drowned as the boat sank to the bottom of Lake Victoria. The manifest showed 443 passengers in the first and second class cabins, but the cheaper third class compartment had no manifest.
The lack of equipment and divers were partially to blame for the tragedy. Rescue teams from South Africa were flown in to salvage the ship and retrieve bodies that sank 25 meters under water.
President Benjamin Mkapa declared 3 days of national mourning after the tragedy.
See also
The team sent from South Africa consisted of 34 South African National Defence Force members of which the bulk were divers and the balance support personnel. The team were deployed and overnight packed ofr a general operation as the intelligence was not forthcomming. The team left for pretoria the next morning where they received a briefing from the incumbent Chief of SA Navy and then enjoyed several innoculations. They left the next day for Dar Es Salaam as he landing lights at Mwanza airport were defective. After the third day of traveling and briefings the team was able to unload heavy equipment by hand as there were no cranes that worked. The team consisted mainly of divers from SA Navy diving school who was led by Lieutenant Commander Roy Walter Henderson. He ensured that the teams were organised and the removal of bodies began once the team designated to open the ships hull did their job. This task was grusome as it ensured that the divers had to decend into the dead bodies amongst subcutaneous fat to remove the bloated bodies from the bottom of the pile and guide them out of the ships hull. In the end they removed approximately 400 dead bodies which left the team sufferers of post traumatic distress syndrome. Despite the SANDF's best intentions they were given debriefing which was thwarted by the fact that the psycologist deployed with them was himself skittish from an aircraft crash a few months earlier.