El Faro search still seeking survivors

[Recursion]

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/05/us/el-faro-missing-ship-hurricane-joaquin/

The vessel is presumed sunk. There may still be survivors.

God be with the mariners and their families.

[cwydro]

1. I so wish they would find someone alive.

I guess it's just human to hope in the face of what is probably a hopeless situation.

One of the lifeboats was found literally ripped apart...

But I keep thinking maybe someone's out there. It's very sad.

[Recursion]

2. Same here

I was a sailor for a while. I just can't quite give up yet.

[cwydro]

3. I love the sea.

I know; I just keep thinking they'll find a few on a lifeboat.

But to paraphrase the CG guy: abandoning ship in a Cat 4 hurricane is a pretty bad place to be.

This reminds me of The Perfect Storm story. Same kind of thing where you can't help but wonder why the heck they sailed into it.

[Recursion]

4. Literally the wheel seems to have broken

From what I understand a freak wave took out a lot of their steering, and they were basically left turning right into the bastard.

[NightWatcher]

5. If they abandoned ship they did so into a blender

140 mph winds, 40-50' seas, and a churning slurry of debris and cargo containers churning about would not make a safe environment for a swimmer with a little flotation.

I used to work on ships and can only imagine what happened as things went from bad to worse and people had to make decisions.

I hope an investigation can determine why they sailed into the eye of a powerful storm. I'm afraid one of two things happened. Either the captain was full of hubris or he felt pressure (real or imagined) from the company to move another load without concern for the crews safety.

[cwydro]

6. That's what I think also.

That there was some sort of pressure to deliver the cargo.

The text that the female crewmember sent her mom was scary. Something like - There's a hurricane and we're heading straight into it.

Awful.

[Recursion]

7. Sadly yeah

I don't want to assume the worst yet, but God forbid if so they need to get to the bottom of this.