The master of one of the ships that helped save the crew of the Sincerity Ace has provided a dramatic account of the operation.
The crew of the Central Gulf Lines’ 5,600-ceu car carrier Green Lake (built 1998) managed to rescue seven of the 16 crew eventually plucked from the Pacific.
“The entire crew did a truly incredible job under extreme conditions,” Captain William Boyce told the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots (MM&P) weekly newsletter.
“Due to the sea state and our high freeboard, it was very difficult to maneuver, bring the ship alongside each survivor, and get them on board with limited retrieval resources.”
Boyce described how members of the ship’s crew put in 18 hour shifts to get the exhausted survivors from the Sincerity Ace on board.
“The crew showed incredible perseverance, teamwork and determination,” Boyce told the MM&P’s Wheelhouse Weekly, “constantly improvising with each survivor’s recovery in very difficult and dangerous conditions.”
The Green Lake was one of five commercial ships participating in the rescue effort which also included Korea Line Corp’s 174,263-cbm LNG carrier SM Eagle (built 2017), Toyofuji Shippings’ 6,000-ceu car carrier New Century 1 (built 2001), the MOL car carrier 5,000-ceu Venus Spirit (built 2007) and Genco Shipping & Trading’s 180,000-dwt Genco Augustus (built 2007).
The commercial vessels involved are part of the Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System (AMVER), a worldwide voluntary reporting system sponsored by the US Coast Guard (USCG.
“We are thankful for the assistance the crews of these merchant vessels have given us during this event significantly reducing possible response time,” a spokesperson for the USCG said at the time.
