Sweden Tries To Persuade U.S. Group To Abandon Estonia Dive
August 21, 2000
Swedish coastguards reportedly planned to board a U.S. ship they suspect is taking divers to examine the wreck of the ferry Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994 with the loss of 852 lives. Sweden strongly opposes but cannot prevent foreign nationals from diving, as it lies in international waters off Finland. American businessman Greg Bemis has said he plans to send divers to investigate reports that the car and passenger ferry might have been damaged in an explosion before it sank in a Baltic storm in September, 1994. Coastguards said the One Eagle vessel owned by Bemis was sighted north of the Danish Baltic island of Bornholm, heading north. The governments of Sweden and six other Baltic Sea countries have declared the wreck site a final, inviolable place of rest for the victims, whose bodies have not been recovered.
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