At least one person has died and 38 remain missing after a ship capsized off the Florida coast on Sunday night.
Officials were alerted on Tuesday after a commercial vessel spotted a man clinging to the hull of a boat some 45 miles from the city of Fort Pierce.
The survivor said the group had left Bimini in the Bahamas on Saturday night and later encountered foul weather.
US officials said the boat may have been part of a “human smuggling venture”.
According to the survivor, who has not been identified, none of the passengers were wearing a life vest.
