Officials, including Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, center, show respect as a body believed to be one of three missing crew members of the Stellamare is recovered Friday from the ship's hold at the Port of Albany. (James Goolsby / Times Union)
Posted on 12/20/2003 5:51:43 AM PST by NYer
Officials, including Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, center, show respect as a body believed to be one of three missing crew members of the Stellamare is recovered Friday from the ship's hold at the Port of Albany. (James Goolsby / Times Union)
Divers recovered a body from the cargo hold of the ship Stellamare on Friday, 10 days after the 289-foot Dutch vessel capsized at the Port of Albany during loading of two General Electric Co. generators.
No identification was made.
The three missing crew members -- Yuri Akofin, 48; Victor Alexeev, 46; and Sulieman Khasenevich, 43 -- were all from St. Petersburg, Russia.
The 3:30 p.m. recovery unfolded over the course of six hours and involved several failed attempts by local divers to search the partially submerged vessel. Their efforts underscored the difficulty of navigating the cold, dark and low-visibility environment below the surface of the murky Hudson River.
A diver with Smit Salvage, a Dutch company, spotted a pair of boots sticking out from behind a generator in the Stellamare's cargo hold at about 10 a.m. The salvage divers had been guiding cranes that were removing six large hatch covers and other heavy equipment in the open, flooded hold when one of the divers made the discovery.
"Our divers easily freed the body from the area where it was found and brought it to the surface," said Detective James Miller, a spokesman with the city's Public Safety Department. He could not theorize how the body became trapped there.
The salvage divers -- who had been preparing the ship's hold to be sealed and the water pumped out before attempting to turn the ship back upright -- notified local authorities.
The body was located in a gap between a 300-ton GE generator, bound for Italy, and the ship's bulkhead. That area had not been visible during previous dives because it was blocked by the hatch covers and equipment removed in salvage operations.
Preliminary indications were that the body had not been crushed or pinned between the generator and bulkhead.
"The generator is in roughly the same position as when it was loaded, but it's tilted at the angle of the ship," said U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. John E. Cameron.
Typical procedure during loading of the locomotive-size GE generators is for one or two crew members to weld cleats and metal rings around the generators on the bottom of the hold. Cables are later lashed through the rings and around the cleats to hold the equipment in place during an ocean crossing.
It may take some time to make a positive identification of the body recovered Friday. Comparing photos of the three missing crew members with the recovered body failed to make a certain match. Photos of the body will be e-mailed to Russia in an attempt to confirm an identification.
Salvage divers thought they might have glimpsed a second body in the same area within the gymnasium-size cargo hold Friday. But a brief, cursory search was unsuccessful.
The dive operation was suspended by late afternoon Friday as dusk set in.
Salvage divers will return to the cargo hold today. divers will be available in case they locate one or both of the bodies of the remaining missing crew members.
On Friday, local divers with Albany's police and fire departments made two dives, beginning at about noon.
After the first unsuccessful dive, they consulted with the salvage divers and a map. They still failed to locate the body after a second dive.
On a third dive, four local divers were accompanied with two salvage divers, who were more familiar with the layout of the ship's cargo hold. Using a tether line, they guided the local divers to the body.
The diving conditions are challenging and dangerous.
"It's dark. It's cold. The visibility is poor, and our divers are searching an area they're not familiar with," Miller said.
"Things have shifted around and moved and the layout has changed since our divers were last in there," Mayor Jerry Jennings said. "It's extremely important that we recover the bodies of the crew members. We've made it a priority."
Jesse Lewis Jr., a spokesman for Jumbo Shipping, owner of the Stellamare, called the recovery of the crew members' bodies "a very sensitive situation because of our bond with the crew and their families."
Akofin is an engineer who is divorced and has a 22-year-old daughter. Khasenevich, also an engineer, is married and has no children. Alexeev is single and worked on the ship as a welder.
Not that I am aware of, but then I haven't been following the news that closely with all of the Christmas preparations.
A memorial service was held for the three missing men earlier this week. After that, salvage operations went into full swing. They brought up one of the generators a day later and shipped it back to GE for evaluation.
This tragedy is made even more so, as it occured just before Christmas. Yesterday, I attended the funeral of a NYS Trooper who died suddenly on Tuesday. He used to man the desk on the 2nd floor of the state Capitol, just outside the governor's office. He was also a member of the NYS Police pipe & drum corps. He leaves behind two aging parents and an 18 year old daughter, who spoke at the funeral. It is so painful to lose a loved one - but that is exacerbated when it happens just before Christmas, when everyone is filled with joy.
Albany-- Salvage divers locate corpse in stern of capsized vessel; 1 crew member still unaccounted for. Divers pulled a second body from the cargo hold of the capsized Stellamare on Saturday as authorities identified the dead man recovered less than 20 hours earlier as 48-year-old engineer Yuri Akofin.
The second of the Dutch ship's three Russian crewmen missing since the Stellamare tipped and partially sank at the Port of Albany on Dec. 9 was discovered at approximately 10 a.m. by salvage divers working in the vessel's water-filled stern.
The divers, employed by the Dutch company Smit Salvage, alerted local divers, who then entered the water to recover the body, according to Detective James Miller, spokesman for the city of Albany's Public Safety Department.
The identity of the second crewman was not immediately available. Like the first body that was recovered from the Stellamare at 3:30 p.m. Friday, this one was not pinned behind nor underneath anything and did not appear to be crushed, Miller said.
Photographs of the first body were e-mailed to Russia after local authorities failed to identify it. On Saturday, Miller said, the body had been positively identified as Akofin, a St. Petersburg resident who was divorced and had a 22-year-old daughter. The cause of death had not been determined by Saturday afternoon.
"I was down there when they pulled (Akofin) out, and it was very sad," Miller said. "He still had his jumpsuit, boots and gloves on. You know that guy scrambled for his life, but he just couldn't make it."
The other two crew members were Victor Alexeev, 46, the Stellamare's welder, and Sulieman Khasenevich, 43, an engineer.
The Smit Salvage divers re-entered the ship's hold Saturday afternoon to continue their work. They must remove the Stellamare's eight bulkhead floors, seal the hold and pump the water out of it before the vessel can be righted, Miller said.
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