The sinking of the el faro

[Benny Profane]

Fascinating. Well written.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018...ter-in-decades

[seano732]

Fascinating. Well written.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018...ter-in-decades

Incredible. Thanks for sharing.

[buttahflake]

Read that story yesterday, it’s a harrowing account of a ship in serious distress. So many variables that put it right into the eye-wall. I imagine it will be made into a movie. Good read.

[concretejungle]

The Tradewinds podcast did a short series on it as well as episode five of the Containers podcast.

[Norseman]

Great read, thanks.

[iceman]

I had a hard time reading that. Had to take 3 stabs at it to get to the end. It's very easy for me to envision myself making one little mistake that leads to another and another which leads to disaster, but all with the best of intentions. If I have fear in my heart it's fear of exactly that. Well that, and drowning. Scares the piss out of me for some reason. So the article reached me, for sure. Thanks?

[Supermoon]

Wow. Great read. There is a long-form articles thread on here that has one about some ship salvagers which is equally good, and just heard an Outside podcast about the sinking of a crab boat off of Alaska. The ocean is a brutal place sometimes....

This quote really got me. I bet it was just unreal to see it in person

20-mile stretch of floating dolls from a container that had burst open.

[iceman]

That article is the opposite of what I hated about The Perfect Storm. The second half of that that book was straight fiction, nobody really knows how it went down after they lost contact. This was real. A little too real for me, maybe.

[Marshall Tucker]

I've only gotten 1/2 way through, and my immediate reaction was davidson was screwed to the wall no matter what. IF he had diverted far enough and IF he made port safely and was neccessarily late, I garan-god-damn tee he'd have been quietly crucified dead and buried, never to captian again.

Edit just got to

"Fisker-Andersen wrote, “Captain Mike, diversion request heads up through Old Bahama Channel understood and authorized. Thank you for the heads up. Kind regards.”

Authorized? Was that what went on at TOTE? At the very least, the use of that word indicated a superior attitude by an armchair mariner toward a captain tangling with a hurricane at sea. Worse, it raised the possibility that Davidson had taken the straight-line course for San Juan because he had been ordered to do so. "


Corporations are just fuckin ruthless that way. Just how it is.

[Viva]

In the case of Americans, sailing the High Seas, whether in the participation of maritime commerce or simply for pleasure, is yet another form of White Privilage. Ain't that so silver surfer and other resident TGR bitches?

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[PNWbrit]

Pretty damn good read in today's NYT.

THE ISIS FILES

We unearthed thousands of internal documents that help explain how the Islamic State stayed in power so long.

[GeezerSteve]

Wow. Haunting stuff. A few months ago I heard a news item on NPR about the sinking.

[Dantheman]

I had a hard time reading that. Had to take 3 stabs at it to get to the end. It's very easy for me to envision myself making one little mistake that leads to another and another which leads to disaster, but all with the best of intentions. If I have fear in my heart it's fear of exactly that.

That pretty much exactly describes how most backcountry avalanche incidents occur, and it's why I've had a time getting motivated to get into the BC much the past couple years.

[detrusor]

Wow.


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[plugboots]

^^^I agree dantheman, but nobody makes you or me ski into a blizzard with 100% avalanche certainty, He could've not sailed, sailed nearer the coast, etc., but for reasons I don't fully understand, didn't or couldn't. I ski 90% in the BC, but on scary days, I don't ski or ski nearly flat slopes, etc. Maybe that's not as easy an option for you in slc, I don't know.

[iceman]

That pretty much exactly describes how most backcountry avalanche incidents occur, and it's why I've had a time getting motivated to get into the BC much the past couple years.

Yeah, where was that online piece about the deaths at Stevens Pass (maybe? Not positive where it was. Alpy?), The New Yorker or the Times I think? So on point with that kind of fatal decision chain.

[MultiVerse]

^^^I agree dantheman, but nobody makes you or me ski into a blizzard with 100% avalanche certainty, He could've not sailed, sailed nearer the coast, etc., but for reasons I don't fully understand, didn't or couldn't. I ski 90% in the BC, but on scary days, I don't ski or ski nearly flat slopes, etc. Maybe that's not as easy an option for you in slc, I don't know.

That's the thing about heuristics traps, for a variety of reasons like the company not paying for current weather info and the captain not understanding the underlying problems with the weather data the crew failed to recognize they were sailing straight into a scary situation and then failed to course correct. From the best longform magazine articles thread: Both Davidson and Randolph apparently believed they would be dealing with a Category 1 hurricane, and at some distance from the eye. Neither they nor the National Hurricane Center suspected that the storm would increase to a Category 3 and accelerate that very night.

[zartagen]

There's no businessman hanging over my shoulder telling me to get into the shit in the backcountry. Pressure from the businessman is what got the ship into that mess. They could've taken the channel to arrive only 6 hours late. Only 6 hours! The forecasts and everything else would've been irrelevant if they didn't have to stick to the fucking schedule. Victims of capitalism. Losing a ship and 33 souls in a hurricane, oh, it's just business.

[PNWbrit]

Yeah, where was that online piece about the deaths at Stevens Pass (maybe? Not positive where it was. Alpy?), The New Yorker or the Times I think? So on point with that kind of fatal decision chain.

NY Times

it's just business.

Yep this. I don't really see the similarity with recreational avalanche accidents.

Maybe if it was a guide or an avalanche at a resort or a highway.. where commercial pressures were factor.

[iceman]

@zartagen: I hear you, but it comes down to the Captain in the end. Always has, always will.

[iceman]

NY Times.

Thanks. I'm going to re-read that. Just spent a few minutes trying to find it without success.

[iceman]

The similarity lies with the initial mistake and people going along despite any misgivings because it seems "reasonable" in my view. People afraid of outside pressures ignoring their guts.

[Marshall Tucker]

"...For the sake of the ship, Davidson instead engaged two tugs to tow it to the destination. This cost money. It is said among merchant mariners that, yes, a captain has the authority to refuse orders he deems to be unsafe—but probably only once. Davidson went off on vacation, and when he returned was informed by Crowley that he no longer had a job."

[iceman]

It's still on him. Tough, but there it is. He was the Captain.

You can understand it and even forgive it but the fault comes down to him.

[MultiVerse]

The similarity lies with the initial mistake and people going along despite any misgivings because it seems "reasonable" in my view. People afraid of outside pressures ignoring their guts.

Yeah, even as the situation worsened and some of the crew suggested a change of course, others maintained that conditions were within normal bounds:

Davidson said, “What? Who’s not sleeping good? Well, this is every day in Alaska. This is what it’s like.”

Hamm said, “Those seas are for real.”

Schultz said, “That’s what I said when I walked up here. I said this is every day in Alaska.”