By Linny Folau, with Rachel Langi and Mary Lyn Fonua

Rescued from the sea, a young Ha'afeva man Siaosi Lavaka said that he saw one body recovered and that only the men had reached the lifeboats after the MV Princess Ashika was overturned by heavy seas around midnight last night. He fears that all the women and children went down with the boat.

The MV Pulupaki arrived at Ha'afeva island at 11:00 am this morning with 50 survivors who are all men. "No women or children made it," said Siaosi, who talked to Matangi Tonga Online by cell phone at around midday today.

Overturned

Siaosi who was travelling with his mother Lavinia, who is still missing, boarded the ferry at Nuku'alofa. He said the sea was rough and before they reached Ha'afeva the waves went into the lower deck of the ferry where the crew were. The ferry rocked and he believed this caused the cargo to move to one side. The ferry then began to overturn and some passengers jumped off.

"We woke up to the sound of shouting and we jumped off," he said.

He believed it was at about 11:55pm when survivors in the water started to get into lifeboats that were in the sea.

There were nine lifeboats and Siaosi said seven lifeboats were all filled with male survivors. When they got into the lifeboats the ferry subsided. He believed the women and children were all stuck inside the ferry when it went down. They were sleeping when the ferry got into difficulties.

There were two other the lifeboats, one was empty and the other lifeboat had already drifted off in the darkness.

Captain rescued

Siaosi, said after a while one of the lifeboast was found on the east side of Kelefisia, near Nomuka, with the Captain Maka Tuputupu with one other survivor.

At around 2:00 am the MV Pulupaki arrived at scene and rescued them from the lifeboats. Then the Voea, Captain Tasman and RNZAF Orion aircraft arrived shortly after. He said the MV Pulupaki left with the people rescued from the lifeboats at 8:00am this morning for Ha'afeva and no one else was found.

The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, MVv Molonai was also at the scene and, according to Siaosi, had located the body of a European man nine miles from the scene. He said the man who was aged about 60 was bald-headed and had been travelling with another European woman and a man. The other two foreigners were not in the lifeboats. A Japanese man is also among the missing foreigners on board.

Siaosi said that he last saw the elderly Japanese volunteer who was sleeping in the crew's quarters at around 11:30 pm. The man was woken up but had not seen him in the lifeboats.

In Nuku'alofa the JICA volunteer co-ordinator Nakamura Noriyuki, this afternoon confirmed that the missing Japanese is senior volunteer Hiroshi Umeda (70) who was a specialist Marine Electrical Engineer, for the Shipping Corporation.

Some of the survivors who got off at Ha'afeva are:

1. Saia Tone

2. Sione Hau

3. Tatofi Halaliku

4. Fatui Manu

5. Pau Tupou

6. Siaosi Lavaka (crew)

The MV Pulupaki arrived at 2:00pm at Pangai this afternoon with some of the survivors.