After finding a 225-square-mile debris field of Styrofoam, wood, cargo and other items Sunday that could be from the missing cargo ship from Jacksonville, sources told NBC News that the U.S. Coast Guard is telling family members the El Faro likely sank.
Contact with the ship was lost during the storm when crew said it was taking water on board.
Aircraft and ships searching for the vessel off the Bahama islands found a container that came from the ship while the Coast Guard said it had found a debris field.
Searchers have also seen an oil sheen and a life ring.
Chief Petty Officer Bobby Nash said it was too early to come to any conclusion.
‘We still don’t have communication with the ship and we don’t even know if the debris field is from the ship,’ he said.
Two Coast Guard cutters, the Northland and Resolute, were expected to continue searching overnight Sunday as the aircraft returned to their bases.
The fourth-day of searching across a wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean near Crooked Island was aided by the first day of calmer weather now that Joaquin has left the Bahamas and was en route to Bermuda.
Authorities lost contact with the El Faro early Thursday as the ship sailed through the Bahamas at the height of the storm as it sailed from its homeport in Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Family members of the crew said they were trying to remain optimistic, but were also clearly in agony as they anxiously awaited word of any developments at the Seafarer’s International Union hall in Jacksonville. Some sobbed and hugged each other.
‘This is torture,’ Mary Shevory, mother of crew member Mariette Wright. ‘I’m just praying to God they find the ship and bring my daughter and everyone on it home,’ she said.
Laurie Bobillot, whose daughter, Danielle Randolph, is a second mate on the El Faro, said Sunday she was trying not to lose hope after nearly four days anxiously waiting for news of the ship from its owner, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico.
‘We’ve got to stay positive,’ said Bobillot, of Rockland, Maine. ‘These kids are trained. Every week they have abandon ship drills.’
Agencies/Canadajournal