Three more families of crew members who died in last year’s sinking of the cargo vessel El Faro have accepted financial settlements with Tote, the ship’s owner, according to the Associated Press.
The families of Frank Hamm III, James Phillip Porter Jnr and Roosevelt Lazarra Clark are the latest to settle.
These bring to 21 the total of settlements. There were 33 crew on the ship, which went down last October 1 off the Bahamas when it was caught without propulsive power in Hurricane Joaquin.
The amount of the settlements is $500,000 for pain and suffering plus an undisclosed amount for economic losses.
The announcement of these latest settlements comes just days after last Friday saw the conclusion of the second round of US Coast Guard (USCG) Board of Marine Investigation hearings into the disaster.
The wreckage of the El Faro was discovered broken into two main parts 15,000 feet down on the ocean floor in November 2015.
But it took two search attempts to find the vessel’s voyage data recorder (VDR), which was done this past April. The VDR, which should contain helpful navigation data and other information, has yet to be retrieved, however.
The aim is to recover the VDR so its secrets can be used in the third and final round of Marine Board hearings at a date to be determined.
