Posted on 10/05/2015 6:46:10 AM PDT by Biggirl
A cargo ship with 33 crewmen on board that has been missing since Thursday is believed to have sunk, according to authorities involved in the search for the vessel.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
"Cargo ship that vanished into Hurricane Joaquin with 33 crew aboard, among them 28 Americans, is believed to have sunk"
Prayers for all who have been affected by this.
Second it, Amen.
What was their first clue? the “200 square mile oil slick/ debris field” as I heard it described on the radio this morning? Mention was also made of cargo containers “bobbing in the water like corks”.
CC
Is it normal for container ship captains to decide to head into an active hurricane?
Fingers crossed everyone got into lifeboats.
The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. Not squared.
“Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!”
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Gordon Lightfoot
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Then later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
‘Twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Sayin’ “Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya”
At seven PM a main hatchway caved in
He said, “Fellas, it’s been good to know ya”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ‘til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
What could go wrong?
...or more appropriately, What did go wrong!
=^)
CC
“What did go wrong! “
It lost all power and was dead in the water and listing 15 degrees as the storm closed in.
I suppose the captain thought he'd be able to sail through the area before it was expected to see severe conditions, but then the ship lost power and couldn't get clear. Sort of like a car stalling in the middle of a railroad crossing just as the gates begin to lower - with similar results.
The boat owner's position seems to be the sailing plan was to pass ahead of the storm but the ship got disabled and ended up in the path of the storm.
An Inquiry will sort out the facts.
If they don't find any survivors, as to why he ship lost power, and why it was taking on water it would be more of a problem to figure out.
If the loss of power and taking on water was caused by big seas and high winds from the hurricane , that would be a case of bad judgement on the part of the Captain, or bad weather forecasting -tom
I’ve been following this story. The only rational thing that makes sense is the captain was following the projected weather reports which would have kept them clear of most of the storm.
Still, I read an email from the one female on board to her family saying they were headed right into it.
The captain was a very well respected man, over two decades at sea, much of it in heavy weather.
Most ships will head out to sea if there is a reasonable chance of the storm making landfall near the port they are in. Ships in port are damaged, ships at sea are not. However the ship needs to leave port well in advance of the storms arrival. Any ship that loses steerage in a hurricane is in serious trouble.
A factor may have been those projected paths. Early on, the weathermen were saying the models beyond 2-3 days were all over the map. The consensus had the storm going over Nantucket, then going inland over the outer banks, then just as wildly, headed to way east over water bypassing the US. This shifting of the path couldn't of been helpful to a captain trying to tip toe just out of the way.
Now, the storm itself was large, so given any path, one would need to give the storm a large berth.
Ships sink...that’s the nature of the beast. R.I.P. to the crew.
Agree. It seems they lost propulsion at or before 7:30 on Thursday morning, so were unable to even attempt to sidestep.
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