#BreakingNews @USCGSoutheast VIDEO Release: Lifeboat found in #ElFaro search area. pic.twitter.com/wzdd0OHls4
— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) October 5, 2015
Danielle Randolph sends an email to her mother: ‘There is a hurricane out here and we are heading straight into it’
ACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The captain of the 790-foot El Faro planned to bypass Hurricane Joaquin, but some kind of mechanical failure left the U.S. container ship with 33 people aboard helplessly — and tragically — adrift in the path of the powerful storm, the vessel’s owners say.
On Monday, four days after the ship vanished, the Coast Guard concluded it sank near the Bahamas in about 15,000 feet of water. One unidentified body in a survival suit was recovered, and the search went on for any trace of the other crew members.
Survival suits help mariners float and stay warm. But even with the water temperature at 85 degrees, hypothermia can set in quickly, Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor said. He noted that the hurricane had winds of about 140 mph and waves topping 50 feet.
“These are trained mariners. They know how to abandon ship,” Fedor said. But “those are challenging conditions to survive.”
The ship, carrying cars and other products, had 28 crew members from the U.S. and five from Poland.
At least four are from Maine:
Michael Davidson of Windham is the captain.
Mike Holland of Wilton is an engineer. His mother, Deb Roberts, is from Jay.
Dylan Meklin is a 2010 graduate of Rockland District High School and a 2015 graduate of Maine Maritime Academy.
Danielle Randolph of Rockland also graduated from RDHS and from the Maine Maritime Academy in the mid-2000s. She is a second mate.
“We’ve been going with no sleep for four days,” Laurie Bobillot, whose daughter Danielle Randolph was aboard the ship, told The Washington Post on Sunday night from Jacksonville, Florida, where she and other family members of the crew gathered.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, 2nd-Maine, released a statement expressing sympathy and hope. “While it’s devastating to learn El Faro has sunk, we must continue to hold onto hope and pray that survivors will be located and reunited with their loved ones. In English, El Faro means ‘The Lighthouse’ and it is my hope that our lighthouses will help guide our Mainers, and the crew, home,” he wrote in the statement.
“My heart goes out to the crew members of the El Faro and their families and loved ones during this difficult time,” U.S. Sen. Angus King said in a statement. “My office has been in touch with the U.S. Coast Guard for additional information and will continue to remain in contact with them as the search continues. Like everyone in Maine, I continue to hold out hope that the crew members may be safely brought home.”
Coast Guard and Navy planes, helicopters, cutters and tugboats searched across a 300-square-mile expanse of Atlantic Ocean near Crooked Island in the Bahamas, where the ship was last heard from while on its way from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico.
A heavily damaged lifeboat from the El Faro was discovered, no one aboard, Fedor said. The ship had two lifeboats capable of holding 43 people each.
“We are still looking for survivors or any sign of life,” he said.
Also spotted were an oil sheen, cargo containers, a partly submerged life raft — the ship carried five rafts, each capable of holding 17 people — life jackets and life rings, authorities said.
Phil Greene, president and CEO of ship owner Tote Services Inc., said the captain had a plan to sail ahead of the hurricane with room to spare.
Greene said the captain, whose name has not been released, had conferred with the El Faro’ssister ship — which was returning to Jacksonville 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.”
The last message from the ship came Thursday morning, when the captain reported the El Farowas listing slightly at 15 degrees in strong winds and heavy seas. Some water had entered through a hatch that popped open.
The captain, who has 20 years’ experience on cargo ships, calmly told company officials the crew was removing the water.
The Coast Guard was unable to fly into the ship’s last known position until Sunday, because of the fierce hurricane winds.
Steven Werse, a ship captain with 31 years’ experience on the seas, said merchant vessels have access to up-to-date weather forecasting and technology that allow them to avoid most storms.
If the El Faro had not lost engine power, he added, it would probably still have been powerful enough to make it through Joaquin.
Without power, it was a sitting duck.
“The ship really is at the mercy of the sea. You have no means of maneuvering the ship. You would be rolling with the seas,” said Werse, secretary-treasurer of the Master Mates and Pilots Union in Linthicum Heights, Maryland. The union has no connection to the El Faro or its crew.
Abandoning ship would be difficult, he added, because the lifeboats might not be accessible on a listing ship and life rafts could be torn apart or blown away.
“Sometimes circumstances overwhelm you. You can do all the planning you want,” Werse said.
Bernard Ferguson, a commercial fisherman who was at his home on Crooked Island during the hurricane, said it must have been a nightmare for the crew.
“It’s impossible for any kind of vessel to take that kind of beating for that length of time, maybe an hour or two, yes,” Ferguson said. “But taking 36 hours of beating, there’s no way.”
Anxious family members, gathered at the Seafarers union hall in Jacksonville, tried to remain optimistic, but some wondered why the ship sailed into such a potent storm.
“What we’ve all questioned from the very start is why the captain would take them through a hurricane of this magnitude, or any hurricane,” said Barry Young, uncle of crew member Shaun Riviera.
Terrence Meadows, a junior engineer and union member, said the captain and company made a poor decision to go to sea. He added there is often pressure for captains to stay on schedule.
“I personally believe that should not have happened,” Meadows said. “We are the most important cargo on that vessel, not the cars” and other cargo.
Fedor said the National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard will investigate the sinking. The Coast Guard did not immediately release safety records requested by The Associated Press for the ship and its company.
Kay reported from Opa-Locka, Florida. Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in Miami and Ben Fox in the Bahamas contributed to this story.
Timeline
MIAMI — Here is a timeline on the search for the cargo ship El Faro, missing off the coast of the Bahamas:
- Tuesday, Sept. 29: El Faro, with a crew of 33 and a cargo that included cars and retail goods, departed Jacksonville, Florida for San Juan, Puerto Rico. As of 5 a.m. that day, then-Tropical Storm Joaquin had maximum wind speeds of 40 mph (65 kph) and its center was located about 385 miles (620 kilometers) northeast of the central Bahamas, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
- Thursday, Oct. 1: TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, the ship’s owner, loses all communication with the El Faro after the crew reported losing power and taking on water as the ship is passing near Crooked Island in the southeastern Bahamas. Hurricane Joaquin is now a Category 3, with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph) with higher gusts. The hurricane-force winds extended 35 miles (55 kilometers) out from the center. The center was 10 miles (15 kilometers) north of Samana Cay in the southern Bahamas.
- Friday, Oct. 2: The U.S. Coast Guard deploys the cutter Northland, an MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter crew that was based in Great Inagua, Bahamas and HC-130 Hercules airplanes from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Florida, to search for the El Faro. They find no trace of the ship.
- Saturday, Oct. 3: The Coast Guard says it found a life ring from the El Faro about 120 miles northeast of Crooked Island. U.S. Navy and Air Force planes and vessels hired by the owner of the El Faro also assist in the search.
- Sunday, Oct. 4: The Coast Guard says it found a large debris field that appears to include material that came from the ship and a sheen of oil on the surface of the sea. The company says it found a container that came from the ship.
- Monday, Oct. 5: The Coast Guard says it determined that the ship sank. It reports finding the body of one crew member and an empty life boat.
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