Big cover up

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Russ Borman

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
71
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Athena
Vessel Make
41 Roughwater
Philip Morrell, vice president of marine operations for Tote Services Inc., told a U.S. Coast Guard investigative panel on Tuesday that it is not company policy for captains to ask for permission about voyages or routes. Morrell said the email showed common courtesy by the captain, not evidence that management dictated the ship's route.

What the F......
 
:rolleyes: Is this in reference to a specific incident on a cruise ship in a storm? :rolleyes:
 
No Cover Up, business as usual.

This should be required reading for anyone on a commercial ship.

"Until the Sea Shall Free Them: Life, Death and Survival in the Merchant Marine" by Robert Frump.

The rules are written so that the crew, captain and/or mates, are always guilty. Never the owner, ship builders and certainly not the USCG.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...hem&qid=1455793374&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1
 
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Maybe commercial aviation...thankfully military when I was in kept an open mind.

Surface safety (Navy and USCG) always seemed to blame captain and crew...even when obvious that system issues were larger.
 
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He actually went further and said they weren't really following the ship or the path of the hurricane.

The examiners have already had doubts regarding the veracity of TOTE in some matters and TOTE is answering much like a company on the run. The shortage of emails got their attention as they'd looked at previous examples and found there were many emails back and forth between TOTE and the ship's captain.

A word to all boaters. Risk that you're overreacting before risking under reaction. Clearly the first couple of communications did not give an indication of the severity of the problems. The CG was under the impression that it was not a life threatening situation. In fact the CG initially stated it was TOTE's responsibility to arrange for salvage. That was before the CG tried to contact the captain by phone.

And the handling of the captain's call to his emergency contact and through the operator was really pathetic. She was more interested in accurate spelling than getting him help.

Oh, TOTE has now, after the fact, purchased a storm tracking system.

I do not believe TOTE is going to get through this clear of any blame and I don't think they should. If my captain sails into a hurricane and all lives aboard are lost, then I must and should share blame. As psneeld said "even when obvious that system issues were larger" should come into play. Each day of this hearing has been revealing.

One other thing from the phone calls. The CG felt the ship was in a different area than where it sank. They were talking about anchoring and getting to shore and San Salvador.
 
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sbu22 said:
Maybe the experienced merchant mariners here can see something distinctive in the couple of pics presented in the Fox piece - I can't.
Click to expand...
Old news at this point. Those pictures and others were put online and up here months ago.

If you follow the "experienced merchant mariners" over on gCaptain there is plenty of speculation of what the photos reveal about how El Faro "may" have come apart and how the VDR was attached.

Sea Star's El Faro

What has puzzled me from the start, is the lack of any communication from the crew back to shore. Even while in cellular range, you would thing some crew would have texted something that in hindsight might be telling.
 
Nice, concise summary of risk management issues written by Capt. Dan Parrott on page 85 of the March 2016 Power and Motoryacht magazine.

It is called "The Perception of Risk".
 
psneeld said:
Nice, concise summary of risk management issues written by Capt. Dan Parrott on page 85 of the March 2016 Power and Motoryacht magazine. It is called "The Perception of Risk".
Click to expand...
Thanks for the lead. I found it online at the end of this article:
Lessons from the El Faro Tragedy

This phase of the El Faro CG hearings wrap up today and are scheduled to resume in a couple of months. Some interesting questioning and testimony at the hearings.
 
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