Desperate search for missing cargo ship. A ship named El Faro vanished by the Bahamas on Thursday October 1, 2015. Thirty-three people were on board, twenty eight of them American. The vessel got caught in Hurricane Joaquin, a category four storm with winds topping 115 miles an hour. The ship is 790 ft. long and was carrying around 300 trailers and multiple cars. The cargo vessel was going from Jacksonville, Florida to the island of Puerto Rico.
The vessel’s crew sent a distress signal around 7:20 AM Thursday morning. At the time it was near Crooked Island (Bahamian territory); moreover, that area is part of the Bermuda Triangle and those waters are considered to be shark infested. The Coast Guard has been working on the search of the missing vessel and its thirty-three passengers. They have found many artifacts that have been confirmed to belong to the ship including a life ring that says El Faro on it.
Tote Maritime, the company that owns the missing cargo vessel says the Capitan of the ship was very experienced and wouldn’t have put his crew at risk. Family members of the ship’s crew are clinging on to hope and have faith the Coast Guard crew will find them alive. Luckily for the ship’s crew members, waters around that zone are 80 degrees, which increases chance of survival. Also these thirty-three crew members were trained to survive in drastic situations; therefore, the hope from family members is extremely spirited; families and friends of the El Faro crew gathered in Jacksonville for a prayer vigil to comfort one another in such a rare devastating situation.