Duck boat sinks in England, 31 rescued

In an echo of a tragedy that rocked Philadelphia three years ago, an amphibious tourist vessel – carrying 31 passengers -- sank in Liverpool, England just moments after it entered the water.

All the passengers aboard the Yellow Duckmarine vessel, better known stateside as a duckboat, escaped without serious injury, according to the Liverpool Echo. The duckboat, named the Wacker Quacker 1,  carried the Queen of England last year on a tour of the city. Without royal personages aboard it on Saturday, it sank just after 4 p.m. on Saturday. Barge owners and firefighters rushed to pluck most of the passengers from the cold waters of the Mersey. Several of the riders swam to shore. At least 18 people were treated at the local Royal Liverpool hospital for minor injuries and shock.

"It is lucky that no one died," said Jackie Clark, a rescuer who used her house barge to pull several victims to safety.

In 2010, two people were killed in Philadelphia when a barge barrelled over a duck boat on the Delaware River causing it sink near Penn's Landing. A pair of Hungarian tourists were trapped under the duck boat canopy as it sank and drowned. The NTSB ruled the accident was caused by a distracted operator on the tug boat that was pulling the barge.The families of Szabolcs Prem, 20, and Dora Schwendtner, 16 collected $15 million in a settlement from the vessels' owners.

Several small children were aboard the Wacker Quacker as it sank on Saturday, including an 18-month-old infant, according to the Echo.

According to reports, another duck boat in the same Liverpool fleet sank earlier this year.  There were no passengers aboard in the March incident. The duckboat that sank over the weekend is the same vessel that carried Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip last year in their tour of Liverpool.

The cause of the sinking remains under investigation.

Case Fitz, a passenger on the duck boat, was visiting Liverpool for the first time with two friends.

Fitz wrote in a comment on the Echo article said she had "never been so scared in my life."

"To say I will never forgot the panic and screams that happened on that boat is an understatement," she wrote.  "[F]or those boats to continue to go on will end in someone's death for sure. They must finally be closed down so no one else goes through what all of us did on Saturday."

Contact staff writer Sam Wood at 215 854 2796, @samwoodiii or samwood@phillynews.com