Besides the refrigeration system, other items that possibly came from El Faro have been washing ashore on Exuma and San Salvador over the past few days, including dozens of containers of body wash and deodorant, shaving cream, syringes and tennis shoes. The container number on the fragment can be traced to a unit that according to software from TOTE Maritime, the owner of the sunken ship, was loaded and set sail on the El Faro.
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The NTSB is the leading the investigating on the El Faro.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter C. Knudson released the following statement: “The NTSB has not received any direct reports of debris from El Faro being recovered in the Bahamas”. Residents of the islands of San Salvador and Exuma have collected items believed to be from the TOTE Maritime vessel since last week. “We would be interested in documenting any debris related to vital systems such as lifesaving equipment”.
By comparison, however, the search for El Faro’s VDR will be confined to an area a fraction of that size – one that’s not even the size of Albuquerque – and that’s why Johnson is feeling confident about finding it.
The Coast Guard and the Navy have been searching for the ship since it disappeared along with its 33-member crew.
El Faro was sailing from Jacksonville, Florida, to Puerto Rico when it lost contact near Crooked Island, just as Category 4 Hurricane Joaquin was battering the Bahamas.
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The nearly 800-foot cargo ship left Jacksonville as Tropical Storm Joaquin built and built until it became a devastating hurricane that ripped through islands and up the Atlantic coast. The four Mainers on board were the captain, Michael Davidson, and crew members Danielle Randolph, Mike Holland, and Dylan Meklin. He also said that the ship had lost its main propulsion unit in swells of 10 to 12 feet, the NTSB reported.
