Mark Gay, the former chief engineer of the "El Faro" on Feb 8 said that evidence from the ship's data recorder showed a crew working hard to keep it afloat. Mark Gay, who served aboard the ship years before its final journey, became emotional at times during testimony before a U.S. Coast Guard investigative board in Jacksonville as he talked about the ship's lost crew. The ship's voyage data recorder had captured audio of the conversations on the ship's bridge as its engines stopped and water flooded a cargo hold. Transcripts showed that Capt. Michael Davidson said he'd lost the plant, which Gay said meant the propulsion system, about an hour before he's heard calling crew members to abandon ship. At the same time as he lost the plant, Davidson told his fellow crew members on the bridge that the engineering crew was reporting that water was pouring through ventilation ducts down below. For Gay, who worked in the same engine room years earlier, indications from the transcripts showed that everyone was still doing their jobs even as a Category 3 hurricane was battering the ship with 30-foot waves and high winds. He said the water entering the room through the ducts wouldn't have deterred their efforts. "You have a lot of good people doing whatever needed to be done to get this thing going and get out of harm's way. I've been in conditions where things go wrong in a hurry and you have to make decisions fast. To me, they were doing everything they could to hold on." At about 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 1, Davidson rang the ship's general alarm, preparing the crew to abandon ship. "Tell em we're goin' in," he said as the alarm bell rang. Moments later he yelled out that the bow of the ship is down. "Throw all your rafts in the water," Davidson said as the ship slipped further into the water. "Stay together!" Davidson was heard trying to soothe the frayed nerves of a frightened crew member before the audio cuts off. Since the loss of the vessel, the Coast Guard and NTSB have been investigating the seaworthiness of the 40-year-old ship. The run to Puerto Rico in 2015 was to be the last by the "El Faro" and its nearly identical sister ship "El Yunque". Since the sinking, the El Yunque was scrapped after inspections found it to be too damaged for a planned retrofit.
WORLD SHIPPING
09 February 2017 - 14:00
Update: 09 February 2017 - 23:58
VDR shows crew working hard to keep El Faro afloat
VDR shows crew working hard to keep El Faro afloat
WORLD SHIPPING
09 February 2017 - 14:00
Update: 09 February 2017 - 23:58
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