Despite Warnings, Lost Florida Ship Steamed Into Hurricane Joaquin
Source: Miami Herald
When the cargo ship El Faro left Jacksonville for its regular run to Puerto Rico, its owners considered the tropical storm named Joaquin drifting near the Bahamas nothing that the rugged 790-foot vessel and its experienced crew members couldn't handle.
The forecast changed as soon as the massive ship set sail but its course- the shortest, straightest shot across the Atlantic to offload containers- never did.
In the face of increasingly ominous warnings about Hurricane Joaquin from the National Hurricane Center, tracking data shows that the El Faro steered almost directly into the strengthening eye of a major hurricane, a decision that appears to have contributed to one of the worst cargo-ship accidents off the U.S. coast in decades.
On Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the worst fears of families awaiting word in the ship's home port of Jacksonville: The massive ship, missing since a last communication Thursday, sank.
Its hull spewed so much Styrofoam packing debris from within its bowels that a Coast Guard officer said the waters off the Bahamas resembled a golf course driving range dotted with balls.
One corpse was found Sunday night, as well as an empty and badly damaged 43-seat lifeboat. There were unidentifiable remains inside a "survival suit", which helps crew members float and avoid hypothermia.
Despite the Coast Guard's grim discoveries, the search will continue for possible survivors. The questions about what happened to the ship have only begun.
Continued...
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article37779879.html
Article by Alex Harris and David Ovalle, from 5 hours ago.
- El Faro, the ship's name means Lighthouse in Spanish.
- Crooked Island, Bahamas Lighthouse
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must be so great. Wishing them strength now and perseverance in the difficult times ahead. What a terrible tragedy.
Wtf was he thinking???!? So many lives lost needlessly 
Some kind of mechanical failure left the ship tragically adrift in the storm. The El Faro captain had 20 years of experience. Some view the owners and captain as responsible. Ship captains are under a lot of pressure to conduct missions. Cars and other products were among the cargo on the 790-foot ship.
Another captain with 31 years experience remarked about the incident, "if the El Faro had not lost engine power it probably would still have been powerful enough to make it through Joaquin. Without power it was a sitting duck. The ship really was at the mercy of the sea. You have no means of maneuvering the ship. You would be rolling with the seas".
More:
Boston Globe, "One Body Found, Empty Lifeboat Located in Search for Crew of El Faro", Oct. 5, 2015.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/10/05/one-body-found-empty-lifeboat-located-search-for-crew-faro/oZyLZu9G2bniFQ8BTQNCqI/story.html
- Crew Members of the Missing El Faro.
Reminds me of the Edmund Fitzgerald, such a terrifying way to go. Alone in the dark, knowing that help isn't coming...
