Cargo Business Newswire

Monday, October 5, 2015

Container ship missing near Bahamas after hurricane

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a 735-foot cargo ship with 33-crewmembers aboard that was reported to be caught in powerful Hurricane Joaquin near Crooked Island, Bahamas.

The container ship El Faro was en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Jacksonville, Florida when the Coast Guard received a satellite notification that the ship had lost propulsion and was listing heavily. The crew reported flooding had been contained.

The Coast Guard has dispatched a search and rescue aircraft from Clearwater, Florida and was seeking to contact the ship.

A potentially catastrophic Category 4 hurricane on a

scale of 1 to 5, Joaquin turned northward on Friday and was expected to start gradually losing strength over cooler water in about 24 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

It has started bringing swells to parts of the southeastern coast of the United States, the National Hurricane Center said.

The Coast Guard said Friday there had been no further communications after the vessel issued the emergency call at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

For more of the Reuters story: www.reuters.com