The account of that rescue, given during a televised briefing by Chen Shoumin, the commander of the local military district in this remote part of central China, was one of the few moments of triumph after a nautical disaster likely to rate as one of the worst in recent memory.
Beneath a shroud of gray clouds, the air sticky with early summer humidity, divers put on their suits and went one after the other into the waters of the world`s third-longest river, hoping to find at least one of the hundreds of missing passengers, many of them retirees, from the Oriental Star. The ship keeled over Monday night in severe weather that the captain and engineer described to investigators as a tornado, according to state news media reports.
Besides Zhu, two others were pulled from the water Tuesday, the Chinese state news media reported. One was Chen Shuhan, a 21-year-old crew member.
As of Tuesday evening, when a heavy rain began to fall, only a handful of people were known to have survived the accident. The official Xinhua News Agency lowered the number of people onboard at the time of the capsizing to 456 from 458, and said there were 14 survivors, down from an earlier report of 15.
Xinhua did not explain why the numbers had changed. As of late Tuesday, 437 were still missing.
The captain of the Oriental Star, identified as Zhang Shunwen, was pulled alive from the river at 11:50 p.m. Monday, more than two hours after the vessel capsized, The Hubei Daily reported. He and the chief engineer, who was also rescued, were taken into police custody for questioning.
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