Posted on 10/02/2015 4:50:41 PM PDT by artichokegrower
The U.S. Coast Guard has launched a search for a U.S.-flagged containership with 33 crewmembers aboard reported to be caught in Hurricane Joaquin, near Crooked Island, Bahamas.
The Coast Guard reported Friday that at approximately 7:30 a.m. Thursday, watchstanders at the Coast Guard Atlantic Area command center in Portsmouth, Virginia, received an Inmarsat satellite notification stating the 735-foot cargo ship El Faro was beset by Hurricane Joaquin while en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Jacksonville, Florida. The notification said that the ship had lost propulsion and had a 15-degree list.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
I’ve been in the logistics/shipping/import/export business since 1988. I didn’t even know there were still cargo vessels which ran under a U.S. flag anymore. Sad.
No you don’t, I have been there and done the on a Fletcher class DD and have NO desire to repeat the experience.
My grandfather was on a Fletcher class in WW2. Great ship!
Gales of November came early.
“but we don’t live or make our living on something that moves beneath us.”
We live on a 36ft Tashiba in coastal Georgia. Our house moves a lot (specially right now. We’re getting a lot of wind from the junk in South Carolina.
The Jones Act requires requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents.
Geez, I hope those folks are OK.
Yes...from The Edmund Fitzgerald awesome and classic song
Gordon Light may be a liberal but no one can deny he is a hell of a songwriter. I love all of his songs, no one song I can say they are bad.
Nov. 10th, 1975 for the ‘Fitz. The gales they reference usually come later in the month. They came early in 1913 too. That was the “white hurricane”, which affected all the lakes, but was worst on Huron. Imagine a hurricane, but with snow. more than 20 vessels sank. Some have never been found. One was discovered just last year.
CC
Home port: San Juan
Class society: American Bureau Of Shipping
Build year: 1975
Builder (*): Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Chester Pa, U.s.a.
Owner: Sea Star Line Jacksonville Fl, U.s.a.
Manager: Sea Star Line Jacksonville Fl, U.s.a.
MMSI: 368208000
Callsign: WFJK
Former name(s):
- Northern Lights (Until 2006 Jan 18)
- Puerto Rico (Until 1991 Jul)
Old hull -— not good in this weather
sister ship Osprey 6804434 decomissioned
Hurricane Joaquin was a Cat 4 lately. That means winds of 130+ and gusting to godknowswhat. Don’t know what the swell was, but the seas on top of that would have been, well... Mind bending. 30 feet at least. Likely a lot more. Even a few waves of 40, 50, 60+ would ruin your whole day. An afternoon of that would be catastrophic. For any ship.
Prayers up for these sailors.
That right there is a little telling.
CC
Imagine that ship in waves that are just about as long as the ship, but as high as the bridge. The bow dives into the face of a wave and totally submerges as the green water flows over, and around and crashes violently into the bridge superstructure. For hour after hour.
Their only hope is to keep the ship pointed quarter to the waves.
If they did indeed lose power there is just nothing they can do. Launching lifeboats is not going to happen. Inflated life rafts will blow away before anyone can get to them. A man in the water has less than zero chance of survival.
It’s been a long time since any contact.
Cause it’s so expensive
Last report she had lost power and listing 15 degrees. Not good.
Not just expensive. Virtually impossible.
Nothing beats hearing rigging singinging in the wind and the surge that snaps the spring line in an old chock smell of Ed 40 and dawn dishwashing soap miss my days living on the water
No, not good at all. Losing power means losing steerage, losing steerage means broaching to the waves, and broaching means rolling over.
“the storm passed safely out to sea”.
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