Transcripts show El Faro captain rejected crew’s suggestions to change course before ship sank

pressherald.com ^ | Edward D. Murphy and Eric Russell

[BenLurkin]

Transcripts of conversations on the bridge of the El Faro, released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board, show that Capt. Michael Davidson of Windham was convinced his course would take him to the southwest quarter of Hurricane Joaquin, as the El Faro headed from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico. On that side of the storm, the wind and seas would be at the ship’s back, and speed the El Faro away from the hurricane’s eye, where the strongest winds and seas are found.

But the storm in late September 2015 instead moved into the path of the cargo ship, leaving the El Faro northwest of the storm’s center, where it was hit head-on by winds gusting up to 110 mph. The ship, battered by high seas for hours, finally sank, 22 miles north-northwest of the eye of the storm, on Oct. 1, 2015. All 33 aboard the ship died, making it one of the worst maritime disasters in recent years.

...

The transcripts, which cover the last 14 hours of the El Faro’s voyage, show a captain and crew increasingly concerned by the storm’s intensity, dealing with flooding in a cargo hold, with cars bobbing in the water – prompting dark humor references to submarines – and the loss of propulsion. Davidson finally issued a hasty order to abandon ship, then assured a frantic crew member that he would stay with him, pleading with the unidentified crew member to summon the strength to escape the sinking vessel.

The transcripts are from the voyage data recorder that was recovered last summer from the wreck of the ship, in 15,000 feet of water.

[BenLurkin]

Link to the transcript (510 pages) at the link.

[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

the problem is the Portland Press Harald, a paper good only for wrapping dead five day old fish and lining bird cages.

PPH, Maine Premier Fake news.

[Ray76]

link to transcript

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3237255/El-Faro-transcript.pdf

link to NTSB news regarding recovery of data recorder

http://elfaroincident.com/el-faro-updates/ntsb-news-release-8-9-16/

[Buttons12]

bkmk

[cyclotic]

The El Faro docked near my office. It was an oddly ungainly looking ship. I’m not a seaman but it never looked like it would be fun in a storm.

[Chickensoup]

There are some things that just don’t need to be made public.

[Jimmy Valentine]

My sense is the ship owners pressured the Captain to make his schedule for Puerto Rico. This clouded his “ sea wits”. Best maneuver for a storm like that is to go in the opposite direction.