It is not known whether the master of the doomed US Jones Act ship El Faro ordered his crew to board lifeboats and abandon ship but the annals of shipping casualties are replete of stories of how difficult the task is likely to have been.
Marine safety experts say boarding a lifeboat on a listing ship beset by a powerful hurricane would be challenging on any vessel but for the 33 men on the TOTE Maritime ship that went down last October, the difficulties could have been compounded by the fact that the lifesaving equipment on the El Faro was technology as old as the ship itself.
The
