Safaga, Egypt ? Family members of passengers on a ferry that sank in the Red Sea protested on Sunday as they waited in vain for news of their loved ones, accusing Egypt’s government of mishandling the rescue after the ship went down with more than 1,400 people on board.

Only a handful of passengers were pulled from the sea, dashing hopes for some 800 people missing and feared dead.

Egyptian officials said the captain was missing, and some survivors alleged he had jumped into one of the first lifeboats out rather than stay with the crippled ferry. A lawmaker said ships operated by the same company had been involved in past tragedies, including one that sank last year.

Late Sunday, police put the number of those rescued at 401 – up from 376 reported on Saturday and an indication that few more survivors would be found. It was unclear when the additional 25 people had been rescued.

Friends and relatives crowd in front of a line of police to hear the names of survivors of Friday's ferry sinking being read out over a loudspeaker Sunday outside the port in Safaga, Egypt. Police said Sunday that 401 of the more than 1,400 passengers had been rescued.

A total of 195 bodies have been recovered.

The Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 was carrying more than 1,400 passengers and crew and 220 cars when it quickly sank early Friday about 55 miles from the Egyptian Red Sea port of Hurghada. Most of the passengers were Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia.

Outside the Red Sea port in Safaga, where survivors were being taken, about 100 family members shouted at police and criticized Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for not providing more information. On Saturday, at similar demonstrations in the port 280 miles southeast of Cairo, family members threw stones at police.

Fire broke out in the vessel’s parking bay as it was about 20 miles from the Saudi shore where it had sailed from, survivors said Sunday. The crew decided to push across the Red Sea, to try to reach Egypt’s shores 110 miles away.

Initial offers of help in the rescue effort from the United States and Britain were rejected, and four Egyptian ships reached the scene only by Friday afternoon, about 10 hours after the ferry was believed to have capsized.