187 bodies retrieved, another 115 presumed drowned:

Survivors recount sinking ferry tragedy

by Thumara Pieris

'Save us! We're on a ship and I think it's sinking!' was the first distress call received from the ill-fated ferry that sank off South Korea's coast two weeks ago, and foreign media reported that a boy with a shaking voice made the first call asking for help.

Vigil: Students hold papers with candles as they pray for the safe return of their friends aboard the sunken ferry Sewol at Danwon High School in Ansan, south of Seoul, South Korea.

Together in grief: The 16 and 17-year-old pupils make up only 75 of the 174 survivors - with a staggering number still unaccounted for.

The boy was put through to the Fire service after calling the emergency 119 number, before being forwarded to the coastguard two minutes later. The fire service official asked him to switch the phone to the captain, and the boy replied: 'Do you mean teacher?' The pronunciation of the words for 'captain' and 'teacher' is similar in Korean.

The boy who was later identified as Choi made the first call is among the missing. "His voice was shaking and sounded urgent," a fire officer told the media. "It took a while to identify the ship as the Sewol,"

The Sewol, the ill-fated ferry which shocked the world recently was on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to the traditional honeymoon island of Jeju. Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers on a high school outing. Only 174 people have been rescued and the remainder are all presumed drowned.

The captain of the ship, Lee Joon-seok, 69, and other crew members have been arrested on negligence charges. Lee was also charged with undertaking an 'excessive change of course without slowing down'.

Several crew members, including the captain, left the ferry as it was sinking, witnesses have said to foreign media, after passengers were told to stay in their cabins. The incident is the worst maritime disaster in South Korea since 1993 and has stirred outrage among relatives, who have lashed out against the government for not managing to rescue more than 174 people.

Investigators are still trying to understand the cause of the tragedy, but the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries suspects that the vessel suffered a brief power outage only minutes before making a 45-degree turn, which it says could have caused the Sewol to list. However South Korean authorities broadened their investigation as they have already charged the ferry's captain and two crew members with negligence of duty and violating maritime law after abandoning the ship without efficiently helping passengers, an act labelled "unforgivable" and "murderous" by President Park Geun-hye. According to the Korea Herald , the captain is likely to face a life sentence. On Monday a chief engineer on board attempted suicide but is reportedly in stable condition and will soon be summoned for further questioning.

Several former crew members have told South Korean media that the 20-year-old ferry, which had an extra deck added after it was acquired in 2012, had stability issues.The crew also spoke of steering problems only two weeks before the incident. The owners of the Sewol have been barred from leaving the country and their residence and offices have been raided.

Korean media says at least seven of the 29 crew members are missing or dead, and several of those who survived stayed on or near the ship to help passengers.

Park Jee-Young, Kim Ki-woong and Jeong Hyun-seon, hailed as heroes The number of crew members charged is rising, and so is the anger that families feel. But there are three crew members they are leaving out: Park Jee Young, 22, who by witness accounts helped passengers escape and distributed life jackets -- one after the other to students - as the stricken ferry began to sink. Witnesses told that she told students that crew members must stay on the ship until everyone else leaves, and that she would follow them after helping passengers.

Park Jee Young, 22, who by witness accounts helped passengers escape and distributed life jackets - one after the other to students - as the stricken ferry began to sink.

Paying tribute: The first funerals of the victims of the South Korean ferry disaster were held with men dressed in uniform carrying the coffin of Kim Cho Won, a teacher at Danwon High School who died on her birthday.

When she ran out of jackets, she ran to the next floor to grab more. When she was asked why she wasn't wearing a life jacket, Park said that crew members would be last and that she had to help others first.

Her body was one of the first to be recovered after the ferry sank and laid in a funeral home in the city of Incheon. She is one of the more than 100 people dead; 174 remain missing.

The Korean media has spent lot of attention on heroine Park and one of them reported that a man with injuries to his head showed up to the funeral room where Park's memorial stands and when asked by Park's family who he was, the man said that he had been injured in the ferry and that he was "indebted" to the young woman who placed a towel on his bloody head and helped him as the water rose. Park is reported to have left college to work for the ferry company to support her family following the death of her father two years ago, said her grandmother, Choi Sun Dok, 75,the grandmother of late Park said to Korean media that "She was so responsible and so kind,". Her family members knelt with her, holding her hand and weeping together on the floor. White mums and lilies, which signify death, poured in from strangers, covering the hallway leading to her memorial room. The flowers contain messages like "We will not forget your noble spirit." "We will always remember your sacrifice." "Hero."

At another funeral home in Incheon, a Sewol survivor recounted the bravery of crew member Kim Ki-woong, 28, and his fiancée, Jeong Hyun-seon, 27, who also worked on the ferry. As the ship was sinking, they were yelling to passengers to get out. "Then, the couple went back to the cabins to save other passengers, and they never came back," Korea Times reported.

Over 31,000 people have signed an online petition calling for compensation for their families and for the three to be buried at the national cemetery and also to award them Good Samaritan award. Students grieve in hometown The students attended Danwon High School in Ansan, a leafy suburb of Seoul. The high school is missing most of its sophomores, and classes are to resume Thursday.

Those who are not students, teachers or parents were not allowed on school grounds to allow those to grieve privately. Well-wishers milled outside the school gate, writing Post-it notes and signs with messages of hope and encouragement. "Brothers and sisters, please come back," one read.

Judith Ambe, a local college student who knew about 10 of the missing students through her church, stood outside, silently praying.

"I just hope, maybe, they could be found alive," Ambe said, wiping her tears. "I'm hoping God will intervene."

"It feels so empty now," said student Kim Song Kyum, 17. "It's not an environment where you can study now."

Every student there knows someone who has died or gone missing, the teenagers said.

"I want everything to be a lie," high school student Oh Hae Youn said. "When I wake up in the morning, I feel like everything feels right.

Then, I realise it's not. I just wish everything was a lie."

The first funerals of the students and teachers who died in the South Korean ferry disaster have taken place last week. Mourners gathered to pay tribute to their loved ones at separate funerals in Ansan in Gyeonggi Province. The victims are among 64 people confirmed dead following the disaster - with a further 244 still missing.

They include Kim Cho Won, a first-year teacher at Danwon High School who died on her birthday, and Jeon Young-Soo, who was a student at the institution.

Mourners were spotted weeping and clutching their faces in their hands as they attended the funerals in the industrial town, near Seoul.

Some carried treasured photographs of the victims - while others left bouquets of flowers and messages of love on the ground.