香港撞船事故有关细节逐渐浮出水面

A few details emerged Wednesday about this city's worst seaborne accident in a generation, as crews continued to search for victims and investigators pored through gnarled wreckage, trying to discern what went wrong.

周三，香港40年来最严重海难的一些细节逐渐浮出水面。与此同时，救援人员还在继续搜寻遇难者遗体，而调查人员则在深入研究船只残骸，试图找到事故原因。

A commuter ferry collided on Monday night with a boat filled with workers, their families and friends on a company social outing to watch fireworks celebrating China's National Day. The crash killed at least 38 people.

周一晚上，一艘渡轮同一家公司的船只相撞。后者载有公司员工、员工家属和友人，原本打算驶向特定地点观看国庆烟花表演。撞船事故至少造成38人死亡。

Shock over the death toll turned to outpourings of grief Wednesday, as officials released the names and details of 11 victims, including two children whose mothers also died. All were passengers on the company sightseeing boat, owned by Hongkong Electric Co., one of two major electric utilities in the former British colony.

周三外界对死亡人数的震惊变成了喷薄而出的悲恸。同时政府官员公布了11名遇难者的姓名和具体信息，其中包括两名儿童的情况，他们的母亲也在此次撞船事故中死亡。所有遇难者均为香港电灯有限公司(Hongkong Electric Co.)一艘观光船上的乘客。香港电灯有限公司是香港两家主要电力供应商之一。

Photos of that boat after it was lifted from the water showed the stern mangled and partly missing, and similar damage along the rear of its left side. Photos of the ferry, a larger boat that can hold nearly twice as many people, appear to show more minor damage to the left side of its bow by the waterline.

香港电灯这艘观光船被从水中打捞上来以后的照片显示，船尾严重受损且部分脱落，船体左侧的后部也出现类似受损情况。有关那艘渡轮的照片显示，其船头左侧吃水线下方出现多处轻微损伤。渡轮的载客量几乎是观光船的两倍。

Investigators declined to speculate on the cause of the accident. A formal investigation could take up to six months to assemble a full picture of events, said Francis Liu, who directs the city's marine department. Officials have given no details of how they believe the crash occurred, though the two captains and five other crew from the two boats have been arrested on suspicion of endangering the passengers.

调查人员拒绝猜测事故的原因。香港特别行政区海事处处长廖汉波(Francis Liu)说，还原整个事件真相的正式调查可能需要长达六个月的时间。特区政府官员没有详细说明他们认为撞船事故发生的原因，虽然两艘船的船长和五名船员已因涉嫌危害乘客安全被捕。

Among Hongkong Electric's nearly 2,000 employees, the staff on board Monday were originally seen as the lucky ones. They had been chosen to participate in the outing after getting picked through a companywide lottery, with an itinerary that included a hike to the company's wind-power station on Lamma, and an evening dinner buffet at the company's power station before heading to Victoria Harbor.

香港电灯有近2,000名员工，周一登船的这些员工最初被视作幸运儿。他们是在公司抽奖活动中幸运获奖继而被选中参加国庆当天的出游活动的。当天的行程包括徒步参观香港电灯位于南丫岛的风力发电站，在公司发电厂享用自助晚餐，然后乘船到维多利亚港看国庆烟花表演。

'We were excited to see the fireworks,' said Chiu Ping Chuen, a local journalist whose brother works for Hongkong Electric, and who joined the tour with his wife, daughter and sister. Shortly after leaving the pier, he said he heard a huge crash. 'The boat immediately felt choppy. It all came so quickly.'

当地一位名叫Chiu Ping Chuen的记者说，能够去看烟花表演我们都很高兴。他的哥哥在香港电灯工作，他此次是和妻子、女儿以及姐姐一同登船的。Chiu Ping Chuen说，在离开码头后不久，他听到了巨大的撞击声，整个船身立刻晃荡起来。这一切来得非常迅速。

The festive scene quickly evaporated into terror as the boat, which had a large enclosed cabin and a separate outdoor area, began to sink and benches and other loose objects skidded across the floor. Something struck Mr. Chiu, breaking his right arm.

节日的喜庆瞬间变成了恐怖。船身开始下沉，长椅及其它没有固定的物品在地板上打滑。不知什么东西击中了Chiu Ping Chuen，他的右臂骨折。这艘观光船有一个大型封闭船舱以及一个独立的室外区域。

'The boat sank, I think, just barely after a minute,' he said. While people scrambled, the boat was quickly sinking into the water, and he barely managed to grab life preservers and throw them to his wife, daughter and sister.

Chiu Ping Chuen说，我想船沉了，这才刚刚过了一分钟。就在大家乱作一团的时候，观光船迅速沉入水中。他勉强抓住救生圈，抛给妻子、女儿和姐姐。

A number of the Hongkong Electric revelers had been sitting inside the boat's enclosed cabin, which rapidly filled with water and trapped passengers. Just before the crash, Mr. Chiu and his family decided to switch positions and sit on the rear deck, outside. That meant they were among the first to fall into water, a dangerous place, but one from which they could be more easily rescued than inside the cabin. Rescue personnel later smashed the boat's windows to free as many people as they could.

香港电灯这艘观光船的很多乘客一直坐在封闭的船舱中。事故发生后船舱迅速被灌满水，乘客被困在其中。就在撞船事故发生前，Chiu Ping Chuen一家决定换个地方坐到船尾的室外甲板上。这意味着他们是首批落水的乘客。虽说船尾是一个危险的位置，但和船舱内的乘客相比，他们也更容易获救。救援人员随后砸开观光船的窗户，以便让尽可能多的乘客逃生。

Mr. Chiu, his wife and their three-year-old daughter, Lydia, survived, though the child's lungs filled with water and she spent a night in the intensive-care unit.

Chiu Ping Chuen和他的妻子以及三岁的女儿Lydia活了下来，但女儿肺部积水，在重症监护病房待了一个晚上。

Mr. Chiu's 53-year-old elder sister, Chiu Siu King, perished.

Chiu Ping Chuen 53岁的姐姐Chiu Siu King遇难。

Seven of the dead have been identified as Hongkong Electric employees, the company said. News of the crash rippled through the company through a series of late-night phone calls, shocking employees, many who trained as engineers together and knew each other as students, said one worker who didn't participate in the boating trip.

香港电灯表示，死者中有七人经过确认为该公司员工。一位没有参加此次游船之旅的工人说，有关此次撞船事故的消息通过深夜的一系列电话传遍了整个公司，令很多员工震惊。他们中的很多人曾和遇难者一道作为工程师受训，自学生时代起就相互认识。

'We're just like a big family, as most employees have been working here for a long time. Most of them will work here until their retirement,' he said. Hongkong Electric plans to give 200,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$25,791) to each victim's family. The foundation of Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man and the founder of Cheung Kong, Hongkong Electric's parent company, will also donate an additional HK$30 million.

这位工人说，我们就像一个大家庭，大多数员工在公司已经工作了很长时间，他们中的大多数人将在这里工作到退休。香港电灯计划向每名遇难者的家属支付20万港元（约合25,791美元）。亚洲首富及长江实业创始人李嘉诚的基金会还将额外捐赠3,000万港元。长江实业是香港电灯的母公司。

Mr. Li visited the Queen Mary Hospital on Tuesday night, where some survivors are being treated. Nicknamed 'Superman' in Hong Kong for his rags-to-riches story, Mr. Li, 83, and other tycoons also have faced criticism for rising costs in the city.

李嘉诚周二晚上探访了玛丽医院(Queen Mary Hospital)，部分幸存者正在此接受治疗。因其从赤贫到巨富的发家故事而获得“超人绰号的李嘉诚现年83岁，他和香港其他大亨也因香港的生活成本不断上升而受到批评。

The commuter ferry, which was on a regular run from Hong Kong Island to nearby Lamma Island, sustained damage but none of its passengers were hospitalized. After the crash, the ferry continued to its destination.

出事渡轮虽然也有损毁，但船上没有一名乘客入院治疗。这艘渡轮定期往返于香港岛和附近的南丫岛之间。两船相撞之后，这艘渡轮继续驶向目的地。

On Wednesday, Hong Kong & Kowloon Ferry Holdings Ltd. defended itself against suggestions that the ferry's captain, surnamed Lai, 54 years old, should have stayed to help rescue Hongkong Electric passengers, saying blame shouldn't be assigned before the probe ends.

周三，面对外界关于渡轮船长、现年54岁的黎师傅在撞船后应该留下帮忙救助香港电灯公司乘客的说法，港九小轮控股有限公司(Hong Kong & Kowloon Ferry Holdings Ltd.)为自己辩护说，调查结束前不应该指责任何人。

The company has rejected suggestions in local media that its captain, who worked a 10-hour shift that day and is now in the hospital with rib injuries, was overly tired. It said that the ferry, named Sea Smooth, had been checked for seaworthiness in September.

港九小轮控股有限公司已经驳斥了当地媒体的说法，即事故发生时渡轮船长过于疲劳。事故发生当天，这名船长当值的那一班应工作10小时，他目前正因肋骨受伤而住院治疗。该公司表示，这艘名为“海泰号(Sea Smooth)的渡轮今年9月还曾接受适航性检查。

Political reaction to the crisis was refracted through Hong Kong's relationship with Beijing, which critics say has tried to insert itself into rescue efforts to burnish its image among locals.

这场危机所带来的政治反应也折射出香港与北京的关系。批评者说，北京试图加入到救援工作中来，欲改善其在港人心目中的形象。

In local media, opponents of Hong Kong's chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, questioned why he allowed the deputy head of Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong to make a televised appearance at a local hospital where victims had been taken, and why mainland ships were requested to stand by in case they were needed in the rescue effort. Although part of China, Hong Kong operates under its own legal, political and economic system.

香港特首梁振英的反对者在当地媒体上质疑说，为什么梁振英允许中央政府驻港联络办副主任探访香港一家收治事故伤者的医院时在电视上露面？为什么内地搜救船只被要求待命以防救援工作有所需要？虽然香港是中国的一部分，但它有自己的法律、政治和经济制度。