El Faro: NTSB findings so far, EL Faro's boilers needed servicing

Come on, give us a break. Change channels if you don't like what your reading...

Wrong! When the attorney announced the suit, he named the captain as a defendent. He is no "advocate" for the captain's daughters, and you're talking to potential jurrors with every printed word. But you're not a professional mariner. It's the words thrown by those who live in glass houses that upsets me. As pointed out above, they could easily be that captain, and I doubt they'd appreciate people with far less experience than themselves making unfounded public speculation and criticisms.

No! Because somebody needs to defend this captain who can't defend himself.

His defense? Kind of obvious;; he ****** up!!!
Till you prove ME wrong, change channels...

Actually I believe at this point I'm a more professional mariner than you, not that it has relevance to this, but since you brought it up.

No, he's not an advocate for the captain's family, but rest assured they'll have one and it's natural to file against multiple parties. I still think they deserve an advocate.

You've made it clear you don't like my opinion. Frankly, I don't give a darn. I still have the right to express it just as you do yours.

Guilty until proven innocent? Really. Disgusting bunch of wash women. Go ahead with your crucifixion of a professional mariner. Do what you will to his family. I'll unsubscribe from this garbage.

J, you've started this three times. Enjoy your vendetta against a mariner who died at the helm and what you cost his family.

Allow me to repeat my earlier post: "A 1600 ton master is very much a 'limited' lower level license. The tonnage notation, 1600 GRT, is the limit. That license might (if other standards are met) allow the holder to serve as an able bodied seaman (STCW - able seafarer) on a ship the size of El Faro."

Here we have the root of why this discussion is pointless and in fact damaging to reputations as well as an insult to those directly involved and professional mariners in general. While the outcome is easily seen by even a shoe salesman in the American midwest, the underlying causes cannot be measured by the those who lack even the most basic knowledge or have absolutely no experience of the system or its components.

How can a "captain" who does not even know the licensing structure* of the system which provided his own license (if indeed he even has one) second guess the actions of a master (who in fact held the highest USCG license) with 25 years of seagoing experience since graduating from a maritime college in 1988?

As the holder of the highest USCG issued engineer's license, a lapsed 100 ton master's license, with years at sea on RoRos, tankers, containerships, and RoPax ships I find the completely non-informed conjecture and speculation very offensive. The idea that someone who probably never heard of or used the term RoRo before September 29th is now self-qualified to analyze and postulate on the condition of the El Faro and the seaworthiness of an entire class of ship is simply astounding. What is more astounding is that very few readers have even questioned the qualifications or motives of those who continue to post hearsay and completely unfounded analyses for which they are uniquely ill-equipped to provide.

*A "Cliff's Notes" version of the USCG deck license structure can be found here:
http://www.coastalvitalityproject.o...nses-and-Endorsements-in-the-US-Maritimes.pdf
Please read page 9.

If you knew anything about ships you would know that losing a hatch cover or having one stove in is not actually springing a leak - It is also not something that occurs in calm seas.

You retired from driving small boats not commercial ships the size of this one. What branch of the industry are you recommending folks against joining because yachting is certainly not the same as commercial shipping?

You're the one always screaming to take responsibility for one's on actions. It would seem to me that the Captain is far more likely to have cost his family than is Capt J. I seriously doubt the family is even aware Capt J exists or aware of your defense of the Captain.

Maybe he's referring to the industry of the retired.

As an update to the news on the ship, some of the equipment which has washed ashore in the Bahamas has been identified by the serial numbers as being from El Faro. While the time left on the battery to get a ping is down to less than a week, the Navy, scheduled to arrive on site yesterday, was confident they had a pretty good sense of the general location of the ship and the Coast Guard has found debris in that area.

Oh I might also note this as to the delay. "The USNS Apache was originally scheduled to arrive in the search area on Wednesday but bad weather forced the ship to take a longer route."

Wow, if it was 500 feet longer and had another 30 or 40 feet of freeboard and wasn't almost as old as El Faro they might have been there earlier.

By there do you mean laying on the bottom beside them?

Which, based on its title alone, is misleading in the first place

Because they don't need any amateur investigators.

We all know what they say about opinions. It has been made painfully obvious in this thread that not all opinions are worth publishing, and not all opinions are based on substance.

No, your statements have pretty much confirmed every point I was trying to make.

I don't know because I have no idea what links are in the chain of events that lead to the sinking. I do know enough to not publish my fantasies or opinions as facts such as "the underlying causes are ..." There is a difference between results and causality.