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Doomed 1,200-TEU El Faro was listing, taking on water when engines failed

THE US-flagged 1,200-TEU El Faro, lost in a hurricane off the Bahamas with 33 aboard, was sailing at near full speed into the centre of the storm before she lost propulsion amid mountainous waves and brutal winds, Reuters reports.

Tracking data raises questions about the shipowner's assertion that the vessel's captain had chosen a "sound plan" to pass around Joaquin "with a margin of comfort" but was then thwarted by engine problems.

After reviewing the data, Klaus Luhta, a former ship's officer and chief of staff at the International Organisation of Masters, Mates and Pilots said: "I don't know what he was thinking - I can't even speculate."

While the decision-making may appear inexplicable from a distance, Captain Michael Davidson was an experienced mariner and it is not clear what factors he would have been weighing as he sought to save his ship from calamity.

The El Faro stopped communicating after reporting early on October 1 that it had lost propulsion, was taking on water and listing. No reason was given for the loss of power.

A spokesman for shipowner Tote Inc, Michael Hanson, declined comment, saying the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the sinking, had asked the company to refer all questions related to the investigation to them.

The captain of the El Faro was an experienced, highly trusted mariner who had spent a lifetime on the water, friends and colleagues said.

Capt Michael Davidson of Windham, Maine, was raised in South Portland, alongside Maine's largest port, and spent summers nearby at a family home on an island in Casco Bay.

Capt Davidson attended Maine Maritime Academy, which held a vigil on Tuesday attended by hundreds of students and alumni in Castine, Maine, in memory of five graduates lost on the El Faro.

Scott Futcher, a fellow captain who graduated from the academy in 1987, a year ahead of Davidson, recalled him as a passionate mariner who studied hard.