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Smoke rising from the overturned vessel in the US. Bobby Haven/The Brunswick News

Rescuers contact crew members trapped inside capsized cargo ship

The 200-metre vessel overturned on Sunday and is now visible from the shoreline in Georgia.

LAST UPDATE | 9 Sep 2019

CONTACT HAS BEEN made with four crew members trapped inside a cargo ship that overturned and caught fire in the United States.

The flames and smoke had prevented the rescuers from safely accessing the unstable vessel, the US Coast Guard said earlier today. 

The Coast Guard said it had now made contact with the four trapped crew members today and a rescue effort was underway.

“Response crews will drill a hole to deliver supplies,” the Coast Guard said in a statement on Twitter. “@USCG and salvage crews are developing an extraction plan to safely rescue the 4 #GoldenRay crew members.

“This is a slow, but safe process,” the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard Captain John Reed said 20 people were safely evacuated from the ship before rescuers determined the smoke, flames and unstable cargo made it too risky to venture further inside.

georgia-cargo-ship Sunbathers with the overturned ship in the background. AP AP

The 200-metre vehicle carrier is now stuck in the shipping channel, its hull exposed and its deck empty in full view of people on the shoreline.

Coast Guard Station Brunwick Commander Justin Irwin said they heard tapping from locations coming from inside the vessel, and that Coast Guard members were tapping back on the hull of the ship. 

Rescued crew members had been helping the Coast Guard focus the search for their four missing mates.

georgia-cargo-ship Overturned cargo ship. AP AP

The Coast Guard was notified of the capsized vessel from a 911 call at about 2am on Sunday.

The cause remains under investigation. Dickinson said it isn’t clear if weather conditions caused the ship to lurch. Hurricane Dorian was already well beyond the Georgia coast, where it blew past last week before being downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone.

The Coast Guard said the overturned ship hasn’t released any pollutants so far, but mitigation responses are ready in case they’re needed.

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    Mute Squiddley Diddley
    Favourite Squiddley Diddley
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    Sep 9th 2019, 3:31 PM

    Hope they get them. Kind of a wierd coincidence that the next story below has a headline about repetetive knocks.

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    Mute Squiddley Diddley
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    Sep 9th 2019, 7:51 PM

    (Well it did for hours before it was bumped up with an update.)

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    Mute Kem Trayle
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    Sep 9th 2019, 6:00 PM

    Sunbather’s text: “Just chilling on the beach with Sandra. Getting mooned by a ship lol.”

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    Mute Brian Farrell
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    Sep 9th 2019, 9:15 PM

    Near Identical to the Hoegh Osaka which went over in the Solent.

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    Mute Robert Conneely
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    Sep 9th 2019, 9:38 PM

    @Brian Farrell: Hard to say if that’s the case. It went over because they weren’t calculating the stability correctly and the GM was wrong.
    This could have been the same or water could have got on the car deck causing free surface to cause the GM to go negative.

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    Mute William Kelly
    Favourite William Kelly
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    Sep 10th 2019, 6:57 AM

    The ship designs, with huge super structures above the plimsoll are very prone to listing in high winds, cargo shifting, & need high ballasting to keep them stable. Recall the several bulk carriers & car ferries that were lost in recent times, some with high loss of life.
    Not proper ships in my view.

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    Mute Robert Conneely
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    Sep 10th 2019, 11:19 AM

    @William Kelly: There’s nothing wrong with high structures onboard so long as the vessel stability manual is followed. My current ship has a mast crane 110m above the main deck (5000t swl) and we have plenty of reserve stability. Didn’t sailing ships have a lot of load high up for centuries?
    Wind would have very little to do with capsizing. As for the bulk carriers, it’s liquefaction of cargo that’s the issue. Another one went down last week but it was in Asia so didn’t make the papers here.

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    Mute Mike Rugby Nuts
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    Sep 10th 2019, 2:07 PM

    @Robert Conneely: interesting, like sand? Grains? Fine aggregates? They start rocking and can’t stop?

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    Mute Robert Conneely
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    Sep 10th 2019, 8:02 PM

    @Mike Rugby Nuts: It’s been known to happen on grain vessels but they have design features to stop it.
    They cause what is called free surface effect and shift weight around the hold at speed.

    http://www.bulkcarrierguide.com/iron-ore-liquefaction-cases.html

    The same thing that caused the Herald of Free Enterprise to go over, though that was water on the car decks.

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    Mute Dave Barrett
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    Sep 10th 2019, 7:36 AM

    Poseidon adventure ?

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