My assumption is that they were hoping to get through it the quickest by going in the opposite path of the hurricane along its edge so it passes by them with minimum of trouble.
The predicted path at the time they sailed had the storm heading straight to Norfolk.
Your assumption is probably correct. as they had already cleared the Bahammas before they ran into trouble.
If the storm had followed the predicted path, they would have been east of the heavy stuff by then.
The storm never turned west after they sailed. it went north and east, right at them.
i thot that at first did you see the direction of the ship? ssw?????? ssw ssw wtf
The El Faro which used to be the Northern Lights was built for the Washington to Alaska run. This meant lots of rough weather. The ship was built in 1975 and had steam turbine propulsion which meant it was fast with top speed of 28 knots. Captain probably thought he could out run any weather. Ship was old with all of its sister ships already been sent to the scrapper.