MIAMI ¨C The captain of the U.S. cargo ship El Faro reported ¡°a hull breach¡± and said a hatch had blown open before the vessel sank off the Bahamas in a hurricane earlier this month, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday.
In a recorded satellite phone call Capt. Michael Davidson told the ship¡¯s owner he had ¡°a marine emergency¡± after taking on water in one of the holds, the NTSB said in an update on its two-week-old investigation of the sinking.
It said the captain also reported that the ship had lost its main propulsion unit and that engineers could not get it restarted.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.