Coast Guard searching for missing cargo ship-El Faro October 2015

A search is underway for the El Faro container ship, after it reported taking on water. The ship was sailing from Jacksonville to San Juan, and sailed into Hurricane Joaquin. The crew radioed that they were taking on water, and then communications were lost at about 7:20 am Thursday. The ship is 735 feet long, and has a crew of 28 Americans and 5 Polish nationals.

When the ship left port, the hurricane was only a tropical storm. It strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane, between them leaving port on Tuesday, and Thursday. The Coast Guard has a C-130 flying at low altitude looking for evidence of the ship, and the WC-130s monitoring the storm are also watching for it.

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed
Hurricane Joaquin lashes the Bahamas, veers away from the US 3:17
Searchers were looking Friday for a cargo ship with 33 people on board that went missing during Hurricane Joaquin, as the category 4 storm continued to deliver fierce winds, flooding and torrential rain to the Bahamas, officials said.

The El Faro, a 735-foot cargo ship bound for San Juan in Puerto Rico from Jacksonville, Florida, lost communication at around 7:20 a.m. Thursday when a distress call from the ship indicated it was taking on water, the U.S. Coast Guard and the maritime company that owns the ship, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, said.

www.nbcnews.com...

Hope they survived.. You would think with all that Wx Info that a ship that size would have they could have laid off to avoid the storm...unless schedule was more important than lives ? I for one think that is a terrible way to end ones career/life.

Just a few weeks back (UK) I was on the shore watching a storm coming down the channel. About three miles out were two enormous ships, I watched them for a while and realized neither was moving, they too were obviously watching the approaching storm.

Hope the people on this ship got off in time.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Any idea about what were they transporting

a reply to: Trueman

They had 391 containers on deck, with 294 cars, trucks, and trailers below decks.

They reported taking on water, but had lost propulsion, and were listing at 15 degrees, but had the flooding contained.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I hope my U.S.C.G. brethren are safe and did their job in spite of Joaquin.

a reply to: Springer

Both them, and the WC-130 guys have my utmost respect and admiration. They both do an insanely difficult mission to keep people safe.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah, when I was a hundred years younger I did the at sea rescue stuff, very exciting but fairly dangerous.

a reply to: Springer

I considered applying for the CG Academy, but I was a lousy student with horrible grades, and then I ended up being disqualified for any service.

how big are the swells being reported where the ship was last reported?

I know in the Pacific where the swells are fairly large boats that take on water near the bow and consequently sit lower in the water there have been known to duck dive under a swell and never come back up. happened to the Derbyshire. she dissapeared from radar in under a minute.

on the great lakes the Edmund Fitzgerald got caught between the crests of two large waves and her keel broke in half sinking her fairly quickly.

listing with all that cargo on deck, hope she didn't dive.

hope the crews safe, just lost without ppower and will be found soon.

right on Springer for doing sea rescue back in the day. did not know that about you and it firmly places you in the "that guys cool" corner with me.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

They said they were as high as 30 feet when they reported taking on water.

a reply to: Zaphod58

hopefully she had all of her hatches in deck shut. she was probably sitting low in the water and had waves washing over her sides, thinking water started to flood she got lower and lower and then one wave just big enough dunked her and she didn't pop back up due to the weight. exact same thing happened to the Derbyshire.

hope my guess isnt right and she's just adrift with no power. hope they find her soon.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

The CG said that listing that far, with that much weight distributed the way it is, with no propulsion they were in serious trouble and real danger of going under.

This is terrible.

Hate to hear things like this.

any news

a reply to: Stormdancer777

Nothing yet. The search resumed this morning. Three Coast Guard C-130s, a US Navy P-8 Poseidon, a CG MH-60 helicopter, the Cutters Northland, and Resolute, and a US Navy ship are involved in the search. Three commercial tugs are enroute. They're searching an 850 nautical mile area.

A second P-8A out of Florida has been added to the search. One launches in the morning and flies until early evening, while the second launches in the afternoon and flies through the evening.

a reply to: Stormdancer777

A life ring has been found by CG but that's it so far.

Praying they're somehow ok.

A 225 square mile debris field has been found. A number of items that match items from the ship are in the debris field. This is the second debris field found today. Fenders, a cargo door, cargo container, and thousands of pieces of styrofoam have been found, and confirmed to be from the ship. There has been no sign of any life boats, or of the crew.

www.foxnews.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

The El Faro had two open top lifeboats one which was powered and five rafts that were manual deployment.

Bit surprised they'd not updated to fully enclosed life boats.

Last report, 15 degree list, no propulsion, earlier flooding under control.

At 790 feet this is no small ship to vanish.