I’m guessing you’ve heard of the loss of the El Faro
I’ve taken some time to collect my thoughts on the loss of the El Faro, I knew some of that crew, not well, but well enough.
Any discussion of the S.S. El Faro needs to be placed in perspective, about 100 large ships sink each year, most with loss of life, most (but by no means all) are from suspect registries, five flag states account for 85% of all lost ships.
But even when ships are not lost seafaring is a hazardous profession, most of the seafarers who die do so as a result of industrial accidents on board, or by being lost off the side of a ship.
In the same week as the loss of the S.S. El Faro two other ships were lost, one Dutch flag of the coast of Belgium, the entire crew was rescued, the other a Marshall Islands Flagged ship went down north of Scotland, the entire crew was lost.
The U.S. news media covered the loss of the S.S. El Faro because the crew was U.S.
The S.S. El Faro was originally the S.S. Puerto Rico and ran on a Romance Run (South America) but was brought by TOTE Ships and renamed the S.S. Northern Lights and ran between Tacoma and Anchorage for years, TOTE replaced its steam ships with motor ships and had planned to scrap the older ships, but during the first Gulf War (the one under Poppy Bush), Saltchuk, the parent company of TOTE, Sea Star and Foss (to name just a few, they also own trucking companies petroleum distribution companies, and a freight airline) made a fortune hauling supplies for the government, and the S.S. Northern Lights ran between Stockton Ca. and Kuwait.
After that war Saltchuk renamed the S.S. Northern Lights the S.S. El Faro and moved it to Sea Star lines where it ran a Jacksonville Fla, to San Juan Puerto Rico route.
On the 6TH of March of this year the S.S. El Faro completed and passed its annual Coast Guard inspection, and in June the ship was inspected by surveyors from their classification society (in this case ABS) and found fit.
On the 11TH of September the S.S. El Faro shut down fires in one boiler underway for an inspection, the contractor at that time recommended that the boilers be retubed during the next annual dry docking, which was scheduled to begin on November 6TH of this year
On September 29th at about 8:15 PM the S.S. El Faro left Jacksonville on what would be its last voyage
The longshoremen confirm that all the cargo and containers were double lashed
The next day the captain e-mailed the company that he was changing course to the south to avoid the storm which was rapidly gaining strength
On Thursday morning the Captain called the companies emergency number and reported that a scuttle had blown open and he had water in number three cargo hold, a short time later he called back and told his company that the ship was dead in the water, and had taken on a 15 degree list, that was the last official communication from the S.S. El Faro, later there would be three brief automated distress signals, and then nothing.
A search was started and a sister ship to the S.S. El Faro that was returning from PR reported a debris field and a floating container, later a life ring confirmed to have belonged to the S.S. El Faro was spotted, later a body in a survival suit was seen but not recovered, then a badly damaged life boat was found.
Most recently it seems that the wreckage of the El Faro has been found in 15000 feet of water
There will be investigations, most will take months, maybe a year or more and produce lengthy reports.
None of those reports will tell us why the El faro sank, we already know, the S.S. El Faro sank because it lost power near a hurricane.
Why did it lose power?
Steam ships loose fires for all sorts of reasons, most of the time fires are relit and the ships goes on its way, if I had to guess, and it’s only a guess I’d say they ruptured a super heater tube, earlier this year on a ship I was on we ruptured a super heater tube and blew 27 tons of water (as steam) in less than two minutes, if the two people on watch in the engine room couldn’t move fast enough to bottle up the damaged boiler, they would have lost fires in the other, then if they couldn’t relight fast enough they would lose steam and the generator would trip.
This is what happened to the S.S. Matsonia (a sister ship to the S.S. El Faro only owned by Matson lines) earlier this year in the Pacific, in that case it was 6 full days before they could recover enough to relit and get back underway.
In the case of the S.S. Matsonia the loss was several hundred thousand dollars of refrigerated cargo and damages Matson’s insurance had to pay Safeway.
In the case of the S.S. El Faro the loss was the ship, 28 crew and 5 riders.
Some will ask why they didn’t launch a lifeboat; perhaps they tried, but a 7000 LB object suspended on steel cables is hard to launch in the conditions they faced.
No, the reports won’t tell us anything we don’t already know, approximately 100 ships sink every year, and they all sink for pretty much the same reasons, the Ocean is a dangerous place, and humans cross it at their own risk.