Posted on 10/06/2015 6:33:38 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
The owners of a cargo ship that disappeared Thursday with 33 people on board as Hurricane Joaquin raged said the ship's captain had planned to skirt the storm, but was prevented from doing so by a mechanical failure that left the boat adrift in the path of the power storm.
Phil Greene, president and CEO of ship owner Tote Services Inc., told the Associated Press the captain of the El Faro, whose name has not been released, had conferred with her sister ship — which was returning to Jacksonville, Fla. along a similar route — and determined the weather was good enough to go forward.
"Regrettably he suffered a mechanical problem with his main propulsion system, which left him in the path of the storm," Greene said. "We do not know when his engine problems began to occur, nor the reasons for his engine problems."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Given that submarines are called boats, the term may be more appropriate at this point.
I saw a 1950’s movie like this where the owner of a ship wanted to get the insurance money. He failed to tell the captain or the crew about it.
What were they doing sailing an old ship into a known hurricane?
These guys had a bit of luck courtesy “Big John”
http://articles.philly.com/1999-09-16/news/25488832_1_aircraft-carrier-high-seas-rescue-flight-deck
Fedor said the ship was carrying 391 containers “so it had a lot of topside height to it where
the wind and waves could hit it” and that there were 294 trailers and automobiles below deck.
The part of the ocean where it sank is 15,000ft deep.
Anything too big for one skilled sailor to handle solo is a ship. We still call them “boats” amongst ourselves.
heard a sea lawyer on one of the talking head shows last night ... said that this one one of four identical sisterships built in 1975, two of which have already been scrapped .... this one had been retro fitted to add an additional 27’ of hull length, something which may have contributed to its breakup
Free moving water, worst case flooding in a large space like the engine room, destabilizes the ship. Wonder if wind buffeting allowed spray to force seals and fill containers on deck?
Don’t know about containers taking water but apparenlty the ship was.
snip
Some water had entered through a hatch that popped open, but the captain told
company officials the crew was pumping it out.
My brother was a "sewer pipe sailor" and made it clear that the only boats in the Navy were submarines. That may actually be appropriate for the El Faro as it went under in some very deep water near crooked island. The Coast Guard cutters located quite a bit of flotsam and an oil slick. The seas were one foot with a 12 knot wind. If they could have held out one more day they most likely would have survived.
Regards,
GtG
I agree.
All multi-decade ships are money pits. Oil fired steam turbine power-plant are “rare”. Comes with distilled water makers and oil fired boilers.
Construction and earlier career
El Faro was built by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation in Chester, Pennsylvania,
in 1975 as Puerto Rico.[1] In 1991, the ship was renamed Northern Lights; two years later, it was
lengthened by 90 feet (27 m) at Alabama Shipyard, Inc.[1]
Originally operated by the Navieras de Puerto Rico Steamship Company, the Puerto Rico
hauled cargo to and from the U.S. East Coast for more than two decades.[citation needed] The
vessel was purchased by TOTE Maritime in Tacoma, Washington, renamed Northern Lights, and
placed in service between Tacoma and Anchorage, Alaska.[citation needed] Northern Lights
continued to steam between these two ports until the early 2000s, when the ship was chartered to the
Military Sealift Command of the United States Navy.[citation needed] The ship was later transferred by TOTE to
its subsidiary company Sea Star Lines and renamed El Faro. It then returned to coastwise liner
service between Jacksonville, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.[citation needed]
Sister ship “Great Land” once suffered cracking of the hull while in service on the Tacoma to Alaska run.
“Thousand footer” ore carriers crack hulls nearly every season on the run from Lake Superior down to Lake Erie.
There is a channel called the rock cut that can snag these big girls. There goes the captain’s bonus for the year...
Note open areas on stern for RORO truck cargo access. Many ferry accidents attributed to rough seas are related to failure of these points.
http://memorieshop.com/Greatland/Swan-Island-2007.jpg
http://memorieshop.com/Greatland/index.html
http://memorieshop.com/Greatland/tote.pdf
"El Faro was built by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1975 as Puerto Rico.[1] In 1991, the ship was renamed Northern Lights; two years later, it was lengthened by 90 feet (27 m) at Alabama Shipyard, Inc.[1]"
At the point in time and location the storm wasn’t ‘unpredictable’; the ship pretty much sailed right into it or at least very close.
It wasn’t until later that the storm started on its veer-to-the-east path.
Our sounding stopped around 500-1000 fathoms
Then it would just say MSD on the display
A country good old boy man of a man on the boat pondered that for a bit and declared it must mean Mighty Shittin Deep
He’s long gone but we still chuckle over that 30 years later
Bartlett and Yucatan trenches
That makes sense. My office is near the harbor in Baltimore. When I first moved here, the El Faro was moored at the same dock for months. Later, I saw it moored at another dock for what seemed like months. I wonder if it was undergoing serious maintenance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
