Hurricane Joaquin, barrelling its way towards the US East Coast, claimed its first significant ship scalp overnight. The US Coast Guard rescued 12 seafarers from a liferaft off Haiti last night after their ship sank in treacherous weather conditions.
The 1980-built Bolivian flagged general cargo ship, Minouche, sank 51 nautical miles northwest of Haiti. The crew issued a distress signal as the ship began to list and the USCG deployed a helicopter and a vessel to rescue the seafarers who entered the lifeboat as the 1,525 dwt began to sink.
Equasis states the ship’s registered owned is Miami’s Evade Shipping, although somewhat appropriately given the name Evade, Equasis is unable to identify the beneficial owner.
Hurricane Joaquin battered the Bahamas overnight with winds in excess of 215 kmh and could make landfall in the US over the weekend.
