Alvian said he would have drowned if he had not found the bananas floating among the debris after the 700-tonne Teratai Prima capsized and sank in a monsoonal storm before dawn on Sunday.

'I was below deck. A bunch of bananas belonging to other passengers helped me float until I found a lifeboat,' he said.

'I was with five other survivors in the lifeboat until we met fishermen' around 11am, he added.

The 17-year-old was one of 22 survivors. Almost 250 other people are missing feared drowned.

Conditions were fair when the 10-year-old Teratai Prima set sail from Pare-Pare, on the western coast of Sulawesi island, for Samarinda in East Kalimantan, on Borneo island.

But meteorologists had warned ships to stay in port due to bad weather and about seven hours into the ferry's overnight journey it hit cyclonic winds, driving rain and waves as high as four metres.

It was some 50 kilometres from Majene on the coast of Sulawesi when marititime authorities lost contact with it around 2am on Sunday morning.

Muhammad Yusuf, 38, said he also clung to bananas apparently washed out of the vessel's cargo holds.

'I jumped into the sea before the ship turned upside down. I saw a number of people were panicking and screaming for help as the ferry was listing and lost its balance,' he told AFP from hospital.

'I think many people were still asleep when the ferry was about to flip over.'

He floated with the bananas for about 27 hours until he was rescued by fishermen.

'I managed to survive by telling myself that I have to stay alive for my two children and my wife. I'm very grateful God has given me the chance to live.'

Yulianus Mangande, 29, was woken by the sound of loose objects falling onto the decks as the boat lurched violently to the left. He barely had time to react before the ferry was upside down in the water.

'When the accident happened, all the passengers were sleeping. I was awakened around 3.30am when I heard noises, like things in the ferry falling down,' he told AFP by telephone from Pare-Pare.

'I felt that the ferry was listing to the left, then suddenly it turned upside down,' he said.

The boat quickly righted itself but then began sinking, he said.

'At that time I jumped into the sea along with many other passengers... I had to swim in the dark in heavy seas until the morning. Around 8am I found a lifeboat.'

Three more hours passed before the lifeboat with four other survivors was found by fishermen and taken to Majene.

Another survivor, Rusdi, 18, said he found a long stick of bamboo to help him stay afloat.

'I saw 10 people manage to jump into a lifeboat, but then it flipped over as it couldn't support them,' he said. -- AFP

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