6 ms·

El Faro Sinking – full report [pdf]

41 points by mojomark 9y ago

AlexMuir 9y ago
Jeff Wise wrote a good story on this http://www.mensjournal.com/features/articles/the-last-voyage-of-the-ss-el-faro-w495797 http://www.mensjournal.com/features/articles/the-last-voyage...
- wahern 9y ago
  Another good article is https://newengland.com/yankee-magazine/living/profiles/el-faro/ https://newengland.com/yankee-magazine/living/profiles/el-fa... which goes into more detail about the crew and the shipping company.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
    I bumped into this piece, a bit dramatized: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/04/12/el-faro-final-hours-hurricane-joaquin/100367564/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/04/12/el-far...
  - secstate 9y ago
    Sigh ... they've worked really hard over the past 10 years to remove the definite article from Maine Maritime Academy, and then bam Yankee Magazine goes and uses it all throughout this otherwise fantastic article.
    - weberc2 9y ago
      Which definite article?
      - Taniwha 9y ago
        the definite article
      - notl4wy3r 9y ago
        (There is only one, at least in English. The word "the".)
    - gred 9y ago
      Even if they removed it, it would still be there... in Spanish ;-) ("EL" = "THE")
secstate 9y ago
I feel like this is all the same absurd realities as with Flight M370. A vessel carrying 33 lives into the path of a hurricane was relying on hourly EMAILS from a for-profit weather aggregation service? What the hell? Why wouldn't you have up to the minute satellite transmissions of developing whether on every ship that leaves port? It seems the world is poorer, and people greedier, than can possibly be imagined.
- AceJohnny2 9y ago
  > It seems the world is poorer, and people greedier, than can possibly be imagined. And processes are slower, and people more reluctant to change.
- greglindahl 9y ago
  How often are weather forecasts updated?
  - emmelaich 9y ago
    As often six-hourly but I imagine more frequently than that at certain ports and airports. Doesn't matter though; the radar images are available continuously.
- notl4wy3r 9y ago
  The thing that shocks me is how easily it all could have been prevented by laying a slightly more conservative course a few days before. Just a reminder of how an early course correction has so much more effect than heroic efforts later on. It's amazing how many places this is true: shipping, retirement plans, and orbital dynamics to pick just a few examples.
  - WillPostForFood 9y ago
    It's even worse than that, they had a chance to turn out of it just 6 hours before they sank.
- WillPostForFood 9y ago
javiramos 9y ago
El Faro is a vivid example of how the Jones Act chokes competitiveness in the domestic shipping market. El Faro was 40 years old at the time of sinking - the global average container ship age is ~11 years. El Faro would've not met modern shipbuilding standards. Domestic shippers are not incentivized to modernize their ships. The Jones Act shipping industry is sustained on corruption, lobbying, and special interests. The Jones Act makes me very mad.
- jordanb 9y ago
  El Faro wasn't unseaworthy because it was old. There are plenty of old seaworthy vessels at sea today and there are also newer coffin ships. In fact, flags of convenience and competition between international Classification societies has driven down standards in shipbuilding. There's a long, exhaustive PDF on the subject, written by a veteran of the oil shipping industry, available here[0] Without the Jones Act the American merchant marine would not exist. It would be entirely driven out by third world shipping. Nobody who tries to maintain a first world workforce can compete. For Neoliberals that would be a great victory. Replacing American merchant sailors with Chinese or Filipinos on the Mississippi or the Great Lakes would be a great boon for them because it would undoubtedly reduce costs. Personally I don't buy it. Bottom dollar prices are not always the most important thing. Most countries place restrictions on operations by foreign shippers between internal ports (look up cabotage). Keeping a semblance of an American merchant marine in place is still important, if for no other reason because the military often needs to rely on commercial shipping. American merchant men are consummate professionals who uphold the best standards of seamanship (I know this from personal experience) and they deserve respect. And Americans have the right to demand that the government protect nation's middle class and working class from being crushed by hyperglobalization. [0] http://www.c4tx.org/ctx/pub/tromedy2.pdf http://www.c4tx.org/ctx/pub/tromedy2.pdf
  - csours 9y ago
    >For Neoliberals that would be a great victory. Replacing American merchant sailors with Chinese or Filipinos on the Mississippi or the Great Lakes would be a great boon for them because it would undoubtedly reduce costs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism I think in the current political climate, the word Neoliberal is more likely to be misunderstood than understood as you intended.
frankharv 9y ago
I think this trade mag does a good job covering this. The Captain was a stateroom Captain and it shows. http://gcaptain.com/coast-guard-releases-el-faro-investigation-report-summary-conclusions-recommendations/ http://gcaptain.com/coast-guard-releases-el-faro-investigati...
Overtonwindow 9y ago
The El Faro is a good example of how a rigid chain of command can be disastrous. I'm reminded of Malcolm Gladwell's analysis of "cockpit culture" and deference caused an airliner to run out of fuel and crash.[0] In the case of the El Faro, perhaps not deferring to the Captain could have saved the ship. [0]. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/malcolm-gladwells-cockpit-culture-theory-everywhere-after-asiana-crash/313442/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/malcolm...
- aaron695 9y ago
  Sounds like a Gladwell story, probably not true - https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130709-asiana-flight-214-crash-korean-airlines-culture-outliers/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130709-asia...
cjensen 9y ago
Reading that, at first it's just "oh that doesn't sound good" and then later it's "oh that's bad", then "omg that's horrifying". All in very polite language. So the ship was not properly maintained, never did drills, did not verify maintenance that was done to life rafts, the "load limits" were not updated when major modifications were made, it had improper sealing against water, it was loaded very poorly with insufficient oversight, there were insufficient tie-downs for cargo, entire rows of cars were tied to a single chain instead of individual tie-downs, it routinely ran with too-little oil, the captain assumed weather prediction is perfect and plotted an aggressive course extremely close to the hurricane, the captain went to sleep during the critical hours the ship approached the storm and blew off course change suggestions, captain failed to get up in a timely manner, failed to recognize they were in an "oh hell no" proximity to the hurricane, failed to realize they were taking on water until too late, steered almost into the Cat3 eye while trying to fix stuff, did a turn which caused the oil to slide to the side of the tank and turn off the engine, still optimistically thought they'd get it together instead of calling for help, and generally ditzed around until it was too late to abandon ship. The company which owns this ship needs to die. Also, there was some fine smell of corruption. Coast Guard did a surprise inspection and found serious issues on a sister ship. They got called by their home base to stop that. The CG then flagged the type of issue on the ship and noted that the rest of the similar components needed to be checked. The Certification Agency performed the inspections and said "no it was just the one that was bad." Then the GC does another inspection a few months later and finds that every one of the components was rusted through.

41 points by mojomark 9y ago

Jeff Wise wrote a good story on this http://www.mensjournal.com/features/articles/the-last-voyage-of-the-ss-el-faro-w495797 http://www.mensjournal.com/features/articles/the-last-voyage...

wahern 9y ago
Another good article is https://newengland.com/yankee-magazine/living/profiles/el-faro/ https://newengland.com/yankee-magazine/living/profiles/el-fa... which goes into more detail about the crew and the shipping company.
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
  I bumped into this piece, a bit dramatized: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/04/12/el-faro-final-hours-hurricane-joaquin/100367564/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/04/12/el-far...
- secstate 9y ago
  Sigh ... they've worked really hard over the past 10 years to remove the definite article from Maine Maritime Academy, and then bam Yankee Magazine goes and uses it all throughout this otherwise fantastic article.
  - weberc2 9y ago
    Which definite article?
    - Taniwha 9y ago
      the definite article
    - notl4wy3r 9y ago
      (There is only one, at least in English. The word "the".)
  - gred 9y ago
    Even if they removed it, it would still be there... in Spanish ;-) ("EL" = "THE")

secstate 9y ago

I feel like this is all the same absurd realities as with Flight M370. A vessel carrying 33 lives into the path of a hurricane was relying on hourly EMAILS from a for-profit weather aggregation service? What the hell? Why wouldn't you have up to the minute satellite transmissions of developing whether on every ship that leaves port? It seems the world is poorer, and people greedier, than can possibly be imagined.

AceJohnny2 9y ago
> It seems the world is poorer, and people greedier, than can possibly be imagined. And processes are slower, and people more reluctant to change.
greglindahl 9y ago
How often are weather forecasts updated?
- emmelaich 9y ago
  As often six-hourly but I imagine more frequently than that at certain ports and airports. Doesn't matter though; the radar images are available continuously.
notl4wy3r 9y ago
The thing that shocks me is how easily it all could have been prevented by laying a slightly more conservative course a few days before. Just a reminder of how an early course correction has so much more effect than heroic efforts later on. It's amazing how many places this is true: shipping, retirement plans, and orbital dynamics to pick just a few examples.
- WillPostForFood 9y ago
  It's even worse than that, they had a chance to turn out of it just 6 hours before they sank.
WillPostForFood 9y ago

javiramos 9y ago

El Faro is a vivid example of how the Jones Act chokes competitiveness in the domestic shipping market. El Faro was 40 years old at the time of sinking - the global average container ship age is ~11 years. El Faro would've not met modern shipbuilding standards. Domestic shippers are not incentivized to modernize their ships. The Jones Act shipping industry is sustained on corruption, lobbying, and special interests. The Jones Act makes me very mad.

jordanb 9y ago
El Faro wasn't unseaworthy because it was old. There are plenty of old seaworthy vessels at sea today and there are also newer coffin ships. In fact, flags of convenience and competition between international Classification societies has driven down standards in shipbuilding. There's a long, exhaustive PDF on the subject, written by a veteran of the oil shipping industry, available here[0] Without the Jones Act the American merchant marine would not exist. It would be entirely driven out by third world shipping. Nobody who tries to maintain a first world workforce can compete. For Neoliberals that would be a great victory. Replacing American merchant sailors with Chinese or Filipinos on the Mississippi or the Great Lakes would be a great boon for them because it would undoubtedly reduce costs. Personally I don't buy it. Bottom dollar prices are not always the most important thing. Most countries place restrictions on operations by foreign shippers between internal ports (look up cabotage). Keeping a semblance of an American merchant marine in place is still important, if for no other reason because the military often needs to rely on commercial shipping. American merchant men are consummate professionals who uphold the best standards of seamanship (I know this from personal experience) and they deserve respect. And Americans have the right to demand that the government protect nation's middle class and working class from being crushed by hyperglobalization. [0] http://www.c4tx.org/ctx/pub/tromedy2.pdf http://www.c4tx.org/ctx/pub/tromedy2.pdf
- csours 9y ago
  >For Neoliberals that would be a great victory. Replacing American merchant sailors with Chinese or Filipinos on the Mississippi or the Great Lakes would be a great boon for them because it would undoubtedly reduce costs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism I think in the current political climate, the word Neoliberal is more likely to be misunderstood than understood as you intended.

frankharv 9y ago

I think this trade mag does a good job covering this. The Captain was a stateroom Captain and it shows. http://gcaptain.com/coast-guard-releases-el-faro-investigation-report-summary-conclusions-recommendations/ http://gcaptain.com/coast-guard-releases-el-faro-investigati...

Overtonwindow 9y ago

The El Faro is a good example of how a rigid chain of command can be disastrous. I'm reminded of Malcolm Gladwell's analysis of "cockpit culture" and deference caused an airliner to run out of fuel and crash.[0] In the case of the El Faro, perhaps not deferring to the Captain could have saved the ship. [0]. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/malcolm-gladwells-cockpit-culture-theory-everywhere-after-asiana-crash/313442/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/malcolm...

aaron695 9y ago
Sounds like a Gladwell story, probably not true - https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130709-asiana-flight-214-crash-korean-airlines-culture-outliers/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130709-asia...

cjensen 9y ago

Reading that, at first it's just "oh that doesn't sound good" and then later it's "oh that's bad", then "omg that's horrifying". All in very polite language. So the ship was not properly maintained, never did drills, did not verify maintenance that was done to life rafts, the "load limits" were not updated when major modifications were made, it had improper sealing against water, it was loaded very poorly with insufficient oversight, there were insufficient tie-downs for cargo, entire rows of cars were tied to a single chain instead of individual tie-downs, it routinely ran with too-little oil, the captain assumed weather prediction is perfect and plotted an aggressive course extremely close to the hurricane, the captain went to sleep during the critical hours the ship approached the storm and blew off course change suggestions, captain failed to get up in a timely manner, failed to recognize they were in an "oh hell no" proximity to the hurricane, failed to realize they were taking on water until too late, steered almost into the Cat3 eye while trying to fix stuff, did a turn which caused the oil to slide to the side of the tank and turn off the engine, still optimistically thought they'd get it together instead of calling for help, and generally ditzed around until it was too late to abandon ship. The company which owns this ship needs to die. Also, there was some fine smell of corruption. Coast Guard did a surprise inspection and found serious issues on a sister ship. They got called by their home base to stop that. The CG then flagged the type of issue on the ship and noted that the rest of the similar components needed to be checked. The Certification Agency performed the inspections and said "no it was just the one that was bad." Then the GC does another inspection a few months later and finds that every one of the components was rusted through.