The bodies of 97 people had been found by Saturday, but the morgue director, Dr. Hassan Wafiq, said 60 or more people were most likely still missing. While there is little hope that any will be found alive, their families want to at least give them a proper Islamic burial.

Mr. Thanoon’s family has been rocked by the accident. The body of Omran and Abdullah’s brother, 4-year-old Mustapha, was found on Friday; the body of Mr. Thanoon’s 29-year-old sister was brought to the morgue on Thursday after the boat sank.

People had crowded onto the small craft — a raft with flimsy railings and a canopy to keep off the sun — to make the short journey across an arm of the Tigris to the island, home to a picnic ground and small amusement park. On Thursday, the festive crowd was celebrating Nowruz, the Kurdish and Persian New Year.

The river was high and the boat so overloaded it was sitting low in the water as metal cables cranked it across the Tigris. In the middle of the river, one of the cables broke, the raft tipped and the passengers slid in that direction, their weight quickly causing the craft to capsize.

Rescue workers continued to find victims through late Friday, some as far as 25 miles downstream, where the swift current had taken them. Though 40 or more people were rescued, many are still unaccounted for.