El Faro Photo: TOTE Maritime
The US Coast Guard has resumed the search for the U.S. flagged ro/ro cargo ship, El Faro, with a crew of 33, still missing after losing power and communications in the path of Hurricane Joaquin. The 735-foot ship was bound for San Juan in Puerto Rico from Jacksonville, Florida. TOTE Maritime lost contact with the ship on Thursday at 7:20 AM EST and notified the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard reported that at approximately 7:30 AM Thursday, the Coast Guard Atlantic Area command center in Portsmouth, Virginia, received an Inmarsat satellite notification stating that El Faro was beset by Hurricane Joaquin, had lost propulsion and had a 15-degree list. The Coast Guard reported that the ship was believed to be near the worst of the Category 4 hurricane, in up to 150 mph gusts and 30-foot waves.
On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched a cutter, an MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter and two C-130 Hercules airplanes but failed to locate the ship. The Coast Guard covered approximately 850 square nautical miles in the search on Friday. Search and rescue crews are now searching for the ship near Crooked Island in the Bahamas.
El Faro, ex-Puerto Rico, ex-Northern Lights, is a 15,000 DWT roll-on roll-off ship, built in 1975 at Sun Shipbuilding. Of the crew of 35, 28 are American citizens and five are Polish nationals. Her captain is reported to be Michael Davidson of Windham, Maine. Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.
Some news sites say Ro/Ro, but it doesn’t look like one to me.
Other sites call it a cargo ship.
They also track it with marine traffic, but they have the tracking turned on whick predicts its furture path and they think that’s where the ship is, but it hasn’t gotten there yet. They may be searching too far south.
Latest news there are women in the crew.
I am not a Mariner but surely the ships master and owners were well aware of this hurricane, its severity and likely course?
So why put to sea knowing the grave danger in which the ship was likely to find itself?
Peter, because it was only a tropical storm when they left port.
There in the Mariner’s 1, 2, 3 Rule.
See below along with the map at the site.
The Mariners’ 1-2-3 Rule, or “Danger area”, is indicated by shading. The 1-2-3 Rule, commonly taught to mariners, refers to the rounded long-term NHC forecast errors of 100-200-300 nautical miles at 24-48-72 hours, respectively. The contour defining the shaded area is constructed by accounting for those errors and then broadened further to reflect the maximum tropical storm force (34 knot) wind radii forecast at each of those times by the NHC. The NHC does not warrant that avoiding these danger areas will eliminate the risk of harm from tropical cyclones.
Users operating in the vicinity of these systems are advised to continually monitor the latest Forecast/Advisories from the NHC and proceed at their own risk. Areas are also shaded for systems in which NHC forecasters believe there is an adequate chance of tropical cyclone formation within the next 48 hours.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at1+shtml/145216.shtml?basin#contents
I read one life ring was found, now more?
Some of the crew and their families.
Empty life rings spotted in the Bermuda Triangle where cargo ship carrying 28 Americans is missing, as angry families turn on captain who decided to sail straight into the path of Hurricane Joaquin
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3259528/Empty-life-rings-spotted-Bermuda-Triangle-cargo-ship-carrying-33-people-missing-angry-families-hit-captain-s-decision-sail-straight-Hurricane-Joaquin.html
There is no captain to turn upon; he was with the ship. When he and the crew left port, Joaquin was not yet a hurricane; it spun up very quickly, and the captain judged the risk acceptable, as was his right and duty to determine. The El Faro (built 1975) was an older design of ro-ro with a container deck above, so something of a hybrid, and visually differing from the big current ro-ros or container ships. But it still potentially had the stability issues common to roro and container vessels. Does anyone know what type of rescue boat and life boat or rafts the El Faro would carry? Also, has anyone published her track up until the point of loss of communication… somewhere I’d seen it said that she had begun to turn back before losing propulsion but don’t know if that’s confirmed. What has her normal speed, and what would that have been in a boisterous seaway? Also, was her propulsion plant all the same age as the hull?
Still hoping for survivors, still hoping they got into a lifeboat or rescue boat and survived the Cat 3+ Joaquin.