Posted on 10/05/2015 2:49:25 PM PDT by WhiskeyX
Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor responds to questions during a press conference for search-and-rescue operations for a missing container ship, El Faro, at Coast Guard Air Station Miami, Oct. 5, 2015. Thirty-three people were aboard the El Faro before it went missing in the Caribbean Sea. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Barney.
(Excerpt) Read more at uscgnews.com ...
October 05, 2015
Contact: 7th Coast Guard District
Email: D07-SMB-PAMIAMI@uscg.mil
Office: (305) 415-6683
UPDATE 7: Coast Guard searching for missing container ship caught in Hurricane Joaquin
MIAMI – Coast Guard search and rescue crews continue searching for possible survivors from the cargo ship El Faro Monday night, covering a total search area of more than 160,574 square nautical miles.
While searching in the vicinity of the ship's last known position 35 nautical miles northeast of Crooked Islands, Bahamas, the Coast Guard located a deceased person in a survival suit in the water.
A heavily damaged life boat with markings consistent with those on board the El Faro was also located Sunday. Additional items located by Coast Guard aircrews within a 225 square nautical mile search area include a partially submerged life raft, life jackets, life rings, cargo containers and an oil sheen Sunday.
Coast Guard assets involved in Monday’s search include: ◾Two Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules airplane from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Florida ◾Two Navy P-8 fixed wing airplanes ◾One Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Florida ◾Coast Guard Cutter Northland, a 210-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in Portsmouth, Virginia ◾Coast Guard Cutter Resolute, a 210-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in St. Petersburg, Florida ◾Coast Guard Cutter Charles Sexton, a 154-foot fast response cutter homeported in Key West, Florida. ◾Three commercial tugboats
Sea and weather conditions during Monday's search include one-foot seas and 15 knots winds with unrestricted visibility.
All three Coast Guard cutters will stay on scene and search through the night.
For breaking news, please follow us on Twitter @uscgsoutheast
http://www.uscgnews.com/go/doc/4007/2607894/
I’d like to know whose decision it was to send that ship out in the face of forecasts. It couldn’t have waited another day?
Another source with video:
http://gcaptain.com/el-faro-likely-sank-in-hurricane-joaquin/#.VhLySPlViko
The cruel sea remains so. Even OHSA, the DOL, the DHS, and the EPA cannot tame the angry sea in defense of unwary mariners.
Psalm 107
Let us Pray to the Lord
Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their evil plight;
they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits’ end.b
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Then they were glad that the watersc were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
Pretty sure the ultimate decision and responsibility rests with the ship’s Capt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/el-faro-missing-ship-hurricane-joaquin.html?_r=0
The tropical storm had been newly christened Joaquin not long before the cargo ship El Faro pulled out of the busy port in Jacksonville, Fla., last Tuesday, heading for San Juan, P.R. It was a familiar run for the old ship, ferrying goods on the 1,200-mile route, one it had made countless times.
For many experienced captains of large vessels, a tropical storm is cause for concern but not necessarily alarm. It is carefully monitored and meticulously charted. Tropical storms in the Caribbean are commonplace, and do not necessarily lead to canceled voyages, veteran captains said.
But by the time El Faro and its 33 crew members approached the Bahamas, the storm had turned treacherous far more quickly than initially forecast. It hurdled past hurricane categories 1, 2 and 3 until it settled at 4, a fearsome ball of wind, waves and rain, and then it sat patiently. By Thursday, El Faro was trapped in the crush of 50-foot seas and 120-knot winds. Listing 15 degrees, the ship, full of cargo containers and cars, was taking on water. The engine failed, making it impossible to steer the ship. Then, after a distress signal, all communication vanished....
“Most ships will encounter tropical storm conditions on a frequent basis, particularly at this time; it’s not something they would necessarily attempt to avoid,” said Capt. Joseph S. Murphy II, a licensed master mariner and commercial vessel captain who has been going to sea since 1968, including along El Faro’s route. “These vessels are very robust; they are capable of handling both types of situation — tropical storms, tropical depressions. And this ship has encountered those on numerous occasions.”...
Look at the track at the link and how the storm changed direction.
Modern vessels with a steel hull and a reliable power train can stand up to almost anything that nature can send their way. Add to that modern navigation systems and satellite weather data and it’s just another day in the office.
But, turn off the engines, and any ship is a sailing vessel on bare poles. A single stay sail can keep the stem into the wind and fight the storm. Lose that and you are at the mercy of the sea and the sea will spit your earthly beings onto the shore with only a hope of eternal redemption. Modern vessels have no masts and no stay sails. These brave men and women had no chance.
The ship was in the Atlantic Ocean and not in the Caribbean Sea. -Tom
ping
“I’d like to know whose decision it was to send that ship out in the face of forecasts. It couldn’t have waited another day?”
The berths are pe-scheduled, so missing a scheduled berthing may in some cases have extremely negative logistical and financial consequences. Those logistical and financial risks are, of course, balanced against the risks to the safety of the crew, the ship, and the insurance and financial risks associated with their loss. Normally, a ship will navigate to skirt the storm and make an appropriate docking at its scheduled birth within normal tolerances for changes in scheduling, nad the crew does so by using the hurricane forecast products from the private and public forecasting weather services. In this case, the crew either utilized a bad weather forecast and/or misused the weather forecast when the hurricane moved on a different track than the El Faro expected. once the El Faro was overtaken by the hurricane, the ship may have been able to weather the hurricane if not for other failures which resulted in flooding, loss of engine power, loss of navigation, and then capsizing.
Thanks for that link.
If I recall correctly, the waters between Florida and the Bahamas/ Bermuda are still on the continental shelf, and the waves in that area would be much steeper and come with greater frequency. Even a very large ship, if power is lost, would broach (turn broadside to the waves) in a very short time. Once the containers shifted, it was pretty much a goner.
As a former merchant seaman, my prayers go out to the families of those who were lost.
You are correct, Captain. Over the years I have recoiled at statements that the Bahamas are in the Caribbean.
Wouldn’t have been a problem if they hadn’t lost power.
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep:
O hear us when we cry to thee,
For those in peril on the sea
O Christ, whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at thy word,
Who walked’st on the foaming deep
And calm amid its storm didst sleep;
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea
O holy Spirit, who didst brood
Upon the waters dark and rude,
And bid their angry tumult cease
And give, for wild confusion, peace:
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea.
O Trinity of love and power,
Our brethren shield in danger's hour,
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them whereso’er they go:
Thus evermore shall rise to thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
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