Disastrous Indifference: The Loss of SS El Faro

I sailed as a cadet on the El. Morro. I have never seen such a flagrant disregard for safety in my entire life. One instance I remember we were being audited by ABS. The chief mate kept trying to distract the inspector from the rusted out fire mains. We were required to test the fire system. The fire main would blow out and we had to fix the holes. The strange thing was that it looked freshly painted but had big blisters every few feet. These blisters were wraps of duct tape over rust spots that were painted over that would blow out when the water was turned on. During that event, the cargo door to the aft hold was closed. Not only did the fire main not work, as the water rushed out on deck, it flowed freely down to the aft cargo hold even though it was closed. The aft cargo hold has a passage way to the engine room on tbe port side. Here we are sitting at the dock with water from a busted fire main leaking though the cargo hold door, running down and into the engine room. I can’t image what green water would have been like flowing into the engine room. This was just a minor thing I witnessed during my time on the ship. Sea star should be liable for everything. Yes, you can blame the crew as I did the chief mate in my experience, but it is the company that is responsible for the safety culture. Precious lives lost.

wow that captain. So full of himself, he killed everyone. What an idiot. Poor people RIP

Sounds like owner management " Ride that dead mule into the ground/ screw it, it's insured" attitude.
Just think, in cases like this, the proof is obvious over the timeline, so the Jailtime/ with total asset loss
on conviction makes it a lose / lose automatically instead of a win /win, no risk, low life walkaway.

Obviously, on this ship a mutiny was 100% warranted. Should have stopped waking the captain, let him sleep and radically changed course. Run the damn thing aground on a cay if need be. This isn't just a story about a person in control gone wrong, it's about people that wouldn't face him down. I understand the second mate having no guts to stare down the captain, but the rest of the crew with experience should've boarded up the captain's quarters if need be, and rerouted the ship.

The El Faro: Sails into one of the Atlantic’s strongest hurricanes
The dumbass Captain: I wOnDeR wHy We’Re SiNkiNg

It's scary watching this on October 1

Christ, talk about everything possible going wrong... These poor people would have been toast with only half these issues.

Sounds like the second mate would have been a better choice for captain, she had better awareness of the overall situation and was prepared in advance for her duties. It is a tragedy that 32 people lost their lives due to the 33rd person not understanding that being the boss is not about having privileges and advancing ones career, but more than anything else being responsible for the well-being of those you're in charge of. 😔

He kept asking for a qualified person and he kept getting told "one moment". Do these people comprehend that this ship is literally sinking? Yes! This all could have been avoided and the blame rests solely on the captain! It was his call!

Poor company culture that treated safety as an after thought at best and the captains apathy along with complacency are to blame. I’ve been a subscriber to your channel for a while now, you’ve gained a couple hundred thousand since I started following
your work. Your attention to detail is exquisite, keep up the good work.

Hearing how much the other officers were concerned, it makes you think that there are times when mutiny is perfectly acceptable

This is excellent work. So much detail, so much great commentary, official documents and graphics. Awesome content. Keep it up.

A good captain expects challenge from time to time. The moment he stops being challenged he should know he's surrounded himself with yes men or people who are too timid to speak up. There's a line I won't cross. Not everyone has one, some people take orders even when their life is in danger. A captain who does not engage with challenge is a warning sign as it will set up a future risk event.

referring to the lifeboats of the ss el faro. the listing of sinking ships must have been still a totally unknown phenomena for ship constrution at that time.

Thank you so much for sharing this video. I don't know when the last time something on the internet made me cry. There is a memorial to the El Faro in Rockland, Maine as a number of the victims were from the state - I will go up and pay my respects next weekend because the story is so moving.

That captain killed his crew.

Sad state of affairs and a buffoon IC....

Brick Immortar: thanks for posting. I was born and raised in Chester, Pa. so I had an interest in the El Faro knowing it was built at Sun Ship. Thanks for posting. Cheers!🥨

Again we hit the same problem as with the Herald Of Free Enterprise in once water enters the vehicle deck it enables vehicles to break free and thus accentuates any list by causing them to move with the ships lateral rolling.
The fact that Tote permitted the loading of trailers without the use of trailer pockets for securing their couplings is a shambolic statement of corporate greed in maximising capacity over safety and it should not have taken place.
They would have known that the ship would have been vulnerable to them breaking free without being properely secured as the chains and deck points would have broken under extreme stress.
Again though this comes back to a captain under pressure who made a series of poor calls regarding the strength of the hurricane the ship was facing and the fact that the El Faro was effectively once day ahead of a breakers yard at any stage of that voyage, but his hubris and poor judgment took the crew down with him.

Cargo ships should not be out in a hurricane. Ships should be in a harbor or near land until a hurricane passes over. It’s dangerous operating conditions. All crew were lost on the El Faro. Rescue vessels can’t go out due to the hurricane. Their lives are then put in peril.

The captain was phoning shore for a QI because he wanted someone else to tell him to abandon ship. I think, for one reason or another, he was more afraid over overreacting than he was worried about the situation. Possibly due to the culture of the company.

Very well thought out documentation.

I get infuriated this time of year. Danielle was my friend from Rockland, Maine. A few weeks or so before this happened she was telling us what a d!ck this "captain" was. I wish she would have just turned the ship to the safe route while he was sleeping and dealt with it afterwards. But she respected the chain of command too much.... RIP Danielle Randolph, Dylan Meklin and the rest... Gone but never forgotten 💔

Sad how much more risk, just for profit, commercial water and rail freight forwarding have become world wide

Rich!!! Many thanks

I’ve watched this three times. I have no idea why exactly this story gets to me. I think it’s because there was time at each decision point when, if changed could’ve meant this loss would’ve been avoided. Each decision point though, was obviously a wrong one and blatantly a wrong one. There was no misunderstanding the situation, it was dumb decisions all day long for days, weeks and years! It makes me sad, but I feel this need to keep trying to analyse and understand the human factors so I never make such dumb decisions like this in my own work environment and life.

Can a crew takeover and say “f” the captain?! Bc wwwwtttttfff??!!! How awful… was he drunk?

There are many as***les on this planet unfortunatley for the crew the company they worked for hired one of these as***les to captain a rust bucket and in the process of trying to earn a living this as***le doomed this crew to the bottom of the ocean, peace to the familys of the crew.

bad company management and bad authority overview/inspections.

R.I.P. crew
condolences to their family and friends

Brilliant breakdown .this was apredictable accident waiting to happen.simply profit over human llife

My brother was on the P-8 Poseidon. I can't wait to ask him about this! I guess I never really asked him about his work because usually he couldn't speak about it, but I guarantee he can tell me about this one. Yep I'm looking at his old badge right now. That's really interesting.

In hindsight, wonder if a mutiny

I recently rewatched this video. At the stage he was at, what good would a QI do?

There's a time for mutiny. This was one of those times.

A captain or not to be captain….
😢

What an useless captain 🤨

Just read a book called Into the raging Sea... Very good read

I'm no mariner, but phoning a corporate office helpline in an emergency seems batshit to me. Is there a good reason they're the first choice, or is it just bureaucratic overreach at work again? I fully admit I may just be biased against office workers.

Davidson sounds like he was in denial for as long as he dared.

This documentary is amazing. Better than tv shows with institutional backing and million dollar budgets. I’ve shown this to friends who’ve shown this to their friends and we all agree.

bro really said "yeah imma needlessly put the company's ship and the rest of the crew in a clearly dangerous situation to show the company how good i am at my job"

Why do ships always make phone calls? I need a QI. This is BS.

He should have gotten on the radio and broadcast a pan pan since they needed help, but it wasn't critical. The Coast Guard would have responded. No being on hold. They have a qualified person on call 24/7. Also, the captain could have literally gone to the National Weather service website for a up to date weather update. Or called someone who had a phone or computer. This was 2015. The net might not be 100% accurate, but for a hurricane, it's more than ample. Also the Coast Guard would have given them a weather update if asked.

The crew got hosed. I really hope they found peace and their families have been able to heal.

I think i probably would have snuck up to the bridge and changed the ships course in the middle of the night, tied up the captain and told TOTE to suck a tailpipe if i was stuck on this tub. Fuck the chain of command i wanna live.

It's odd how ships captains can be so arrogant and detached. It's almost as if they don't even care about their own lives...

The Ship Master sounded very inconvenienced.

This Captain was the most inept slow to respond Officer iv ever heard of.Should be terminated for this.

Cocky reckless captain neglected 31 lives and millions of dls in cargo and equipment. just because he thought Alaskan icy waters are rougher than Caribbean waters he had everything under control he was very wrong should had diverted

Damn Saltchuk/Tote is so jank

It's totally insane how things like this can still happen in the 21st century