EVACUATION DELAYED

The captain held off on abandoning ship before a ferry sank, killing 25.

MOKPO, South Korea — The captain of a doomed ferry delayed evacuation for half an hour after a South Korean transportation official ordered preparations to abandon ship, according to a transcript of the ship-toshore exchange and interviews with a crewmember.

The order by an unidentified official at the Jeju Vessel Traffic Services Center to put on lifejackets and prepare for evacuation came just five minutes after the Wednesday morning distress call by the Sewol ferry. The ferry replied that “it’s hard for people to move.”

The confirmed death toll from Wednesday’s sinking off southern South Korea was 25 on Friday, with most of bodies found floating in the ocean, the coast guard said. The number was expected to rise sharply with about 270 people missing, many of them high school students on a class trip. Officials said there were 179 survivors.

The captain hasn’t spoken publicly about his decisions, and officials aren’t talking about their inves- tigation, which includes continued talks with the captain. But the new details about communication between the bridge and transportation officials follow a revelation by a crew- member in an interview with The Associated Press that the captain’s eventual evacuation order came at least half an hour after the distress signal.

The captain, Lee Joon- seok, 68, made a brief, videotaped appearance, although his face was hidden by a gray hoodie.

“I am really sorry and deeply ashamed,” Lee said. “I don’t know what to say.”

Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co., the ship’s owner, also apologized separately, bowing deeply and saying through his tears, “I committed a sin punishable by death. ... I am at a loss for words. I am sorry. I am sorry.”

Divers worked in shifts to try to get into the sunken vessel, where most of the missing passengers are thought to be, but strong currents deterred them. The divers planned to pump oxygen into the ship to help any survivors, but first they had to get inside.

AHN YOUNG-JOON/ASSOCIATED PRESS South Korean coast guardsmen search for missing passengers in the waters around the sunken ferry off the southern coast near Jindo. Strong currents kept divers from entering the ship.

WONGHAE CHO/ASSOCIATED PRESS A woman prays during a candlelight vigil for the missing passengers at Danwon High School in Ansan, South Korea. Many students from the school were on the ferry.