| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Owner | TOTE Maritime |
| Operator | Sea Star Line |
| Port of registry | San Juan, Puerto Rico,  United States[1] |
| Route | Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. to San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S. |
| Ordered | 1973 |
| Builder | Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.[1] |
| Yard number | 670[2] |
| Laid down | April 11, 1974[2] |
| Launched | November 1, 1974[2] |
| Completed | January 16, 1975[2] |
| Out of service | October 1, 2015[3] |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Sank with all hands in Hurricane Joaquin on October 1, 2015[3] |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Type | Roll-on/roll-off cargo ship |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 241 m (791 ft) (after lengthening) |
| Beam | 28.6 m (94 ft) |
| Draft | 12.8 m (42 ft) |
| Propulsion | Single shaft, double reduction compound steam turbine (11,190 kW) |
| Speed | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) |
| Crew | 33 personnel (28 Americans and 5 Poles) on final voyage |
SS El Faro was a United States-flagged, combination roll-on/roll-off and lift-on/lift-off cargo ship crewed by U.S. merchant mariners. Built in 1975 by Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. as Puerto Rico, the vessel was renamed Northern Lights in 1991 and, finally, El Faro in 2006. She was lost at sea with her entire crew of 33 on October 1, 2015, after steaming into the eyewall of Hurricane Joaquin.[4]
El Faro departed Jacksonville, Florida, under the command of Captain Michael Davidson, bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico, at 8:10 p.m. EST on September 29, 2015, when then-Tropical Storm Joaquin was several hundred miles to the east. Two days later, after Joaquin had become a Category 4 hurricane, the vessel likely encountered swells of 20 to 40 ft (6 to 12 m) and winds over 80 kn (150 km/h; 92 mph) as she sailed near the storm's eye. Around 7:30 a.m. on October 1, the ship had taken on water and was listing 15 degrees. The last report from the captain, however, indicated that the crew had contained the flooding. Shortly after that, El Faro ceased all communications with shore.[5][4]
On October 2, the 40-year-old ship was declared missing. An extensive search operation was launched by the United States Coast Guard, with help from the United States Navy, the United States Air Force, and the Air National Guard. Searchers recovered debris and a damaged lifeboat, and spotted (but could not recover) an unidentifiable body. El Faro was declared sunk on October 5. The search was called off at sunset on October 7, by which time more than 183,000 sq nmi (630,000 km2; 242,000 sq mi) had been covered by aircraft and ships. The Navy sent USNS Apache to conduct an underwater search for El Faro on October 19, 2015.[6] Apache identified wreckage on October 31 "consistent with the [El Faro] cargo ship ... in an upright position and in one piece".[7] The next day, November 1, the Navy announced a submersible had returned images that identified the wreck as El Faro.[8][4]
- ^ a b c d "El Faro (7500285)". ABS Record. American Bureau of Shipping. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
- ^ a b c d "El Faro (7395351)". Sea-web. S&P Global. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
NYT151005was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c Slade, Rachel. Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm and the Sinking of the El Faro. HarperCollins, New York, 2018.
- ^ Langewiesche, William (April 2018). ""The Clock is Ticking" Inside El Faro: The Worst U.S. Maritime Disaster in Decades". Vanity Fair. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
A recording salvaged from three miles deep tells the story of the doomed El Faro, a cargo ship engulfed by a hurricane.
- ^ "U.S. Navy launches salvage operation for sunken cargo ship". Miami, Florida: CBS News. Associated Press. October 19, 2015. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ^ Steve Almasy (October 31, 2015). "U.S. Navy finds wreckage believed to be missing cargo ship El Faro". CNN. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
- ^ Ashley Halsey III, "Navy finds ship that sank near Bahamas in Hurricane Joaquin", Washington Post, November 2, 2015.