Posted on 10/05/2015 7:16:02 AM PDT by cll
Edited on 10/05/2015 8:48:12 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
(USCG confirms SS El faro has sunk. 1 body and one damaged life boat found among large debris field. details forthcoming.)
MIAMI, Florida (NEWS CENTER) -- The search to find the missing cargo ship, El Faro, which disappeared Thursday in the midst of Hurricane Joaquin with at least four Mainers on board, started up again early Monday morning.According to the U. S. Coast Guard, HC130 aircrews left early in the morning to continue their search for the missing crew.
She sailed from Florida last Tuesday, right into the storm.
Why ?
...
That’s the question. My guess is the company puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the captain to save fuel and time.
Amen!
Someone had posted on another thread yesterday that the hurricane at that time was a TS and most models had it going north. Also, the Captain is/was a 20+ year ship master with lots of rough seas experience and was heading south and east to Puerto Rico.
Sometimes it just happens.
Prayers up!
Hearts go out to the families but also G-D Bless the Coast Guard for continuing to search for those who abandoned ship in a CAT4 storm.
It was a tropical storm when she sailed
She may have been loaded in storms projected path at dock or in St John’s River..,. Not a good place
These class vessels are fast and perhaps thought she could outmaneuver storm if it got worse
Large ships traverse hurricanes and typhoons regularly around the globe
But as a rule try to avoid the zero to 120 degree apex of hurricanes which is highest concentration of storm power
In a storm any vessel is eithe slamming bow or surfing stern
She reported she lost power over propeller issues and hence she would have likely laid to beam in towering canyons of water
Steep seas with big rollers and fairly high frequency wave length on top
Beaufort scale 12 plus which is ominous
Non functioning propeller was reported by radio
In a cat 4 hurricane
That’s game over on a single screw
“The ironic thing, next month will mark 40 years since that sinking of the legendary Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Interesting as the El Faro was built that same year(1975).
Thanks for that.
I did six crossings of the Pacific by the time I was 13 years old.
I know about storms and big swells.
Prayers for all. A real heartbreaker.
Scenario: Without a propeller to drive them they would have been at the mercy of the high seas.
The waves would have forced the ship into parallel trough (I’ve forgotten the term). The lashings on deck are no substitute for steel cell walls as below deck on such container vessels, and the waves would have slammed into the vessel full length fore to aft, as well the containers more than likely causing the lashings of the on deck containers to fail, and the containers to lay over towards the opposite side from the advancing waves.
The weight of those containers would have held the vessel in a serious list. The vessel would most certainly have capsized under such conditions being subjected to continuous high seas from the opposite side of the list.
I doubt under the conditions they could have launched any lifeboats. The one side would have been impossible to launch, and the other side would have been under the capsizing vessel. I do believe it happened quickly once the ship was caught in the trough.
Comments welcomed.
There’s a lot of shipping traffic in the region. Nobody else made the same mistake. Models are just models, and anyone in the business should know that storms which get close to Florida this time of year can strengthen in a hurry.
Are you saying no other ship went to sea from Florida or Southeast USA Atlantic ports last Tuesday?
Please confirm this.
Both ships were 700 footers with similar number of crew...
The Coast Guard says they found a body in a survival suit, as well as several other empty survival suits. Seems to me some of the crew attempted to jump for their lives in a hurry.
You’re welcome.
The thing that stands out to me and raises endless questions is the last email sent by the female officer to her family...she said there’s a cat 3 out there and we’re heading right into it...
That's what I want to know. WHY? Who would be crazy enough to sail into the path of a hurricane? I could understand if this happened many years ago when there was little/no hurricane tracking but how could this happen nowadays when we have accurate satellite locations of the hurricanes plus a good idea of the track.
DOES NOT COMPUTE!!!
I’m saying no other ship was fooled by the models and sailed into the storm.
Once they lost their propeller the ship would have been pushed by the high waves into the trough, and the rest of the scenario I presented in my previous post would have happened very quickly allowing little time for the crew to prepare to abandon ship. As I said the lifeboats would have been out of the question. Previous pictures of how the lifeboats were mounted pretty much tell me they weren’t accessible under the circumstances.
They probably lost the propeller due to burning out the bearings with a free wheeling prop as the stern came out of the water leaving nothing to prevent the prop from over revving. The ship was forty years old. I don’t know if the 2006 refit they did what to the propeller shaft bearings etc.
The wisdom of the rookie. It happens a lot in aviation too. New pilots/mariners might lack experience, but often their fresh training serves as a check to an experienced captain’s complacency. Not saying that this is what happen on the El Faro, but her message sounds more like an alarm than a matter of fact.
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