Coast Guard begins rescue of listing ship’s crew

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The rescue of crew members of an Asian ship listing on its side in the Pacific Ocean began late Monday, officials said.

“The first helicopter is on the scene and starting hoist operations,” said Alaska National Guard spokesman Maj. Mike Haller.

Two National Guard Pave Hawk helicopters and a Coast Guard helicopter will pick up the 22 crew members of the Cougar Ace, 230 miles from Adak Island in the Aleutians. The crew members all had donned survival suits as the ship began to take on water.

The intent, Haller said, was to deliver all crew members to Adak Island. If not all can be taken, the remainder will be transferred to a nearby merchant marine ship.

The Cougar Ace began listing in the turbulent Pacific Ocean late Sunday night, when the crew sent out an SOS.

A Coast Guard plane earlier Monday dropped three life rafts, but roiling waters shoved the rafts underneath the dipping port side of the 654-foot ship. Racing against an increasingly tilting ship, rescuers tossed an additional raft along the higher starboard side, but it was a 150-foot drop to the water and beyond their reach.

The Cougar Ace had been carrying nearly 5,000 cars from Japan to Canada when it began taking on water Sunday night.

“It’s sitting on its side, basically,” Petty Officer Stephen Harrison said.

A merchant marine ship crew that had been in the area reached the vessel Monday morning. The crew of that ship tried, but failed, to rig a line to the Cougar Ace to keep it from tilting further.

Near the vessel, Coast Guard officers could see a two-mile oil sheen, though officials said it was difficult to say how much of the ship’s 430 metric tons of fuel oil or 112 metric tons of diesel fuel had spilled. The ocean was choppy, with rain squalls and 8- to 10-foot seas reported.

Communications between the crew and Coast Guard became increasingly difficult Monday when the batteries in the crew’s hand-held radio dimmed, Coast Guard Lt. Mara Booth-Miller said. Crew members had to shout information to the merchant ship, which then relayed messages back and forth to the Coast Guard.

The Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace – owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines – was carrying 4,813 vehicles from Japan to Vancouver, B.C., said Greg Beuerman, a spokesman for the ship owner. There were no reports of cars going overboard. Beuerman said typically vehicles are securely fastened.

“Obviously, the primary concern for all involved is the safety of the crew on board,” he said.

One crew member suffered a broken leg. There were no other injuries, according to Harrison.

Beuerman said the ship was equipped with lifeboats and rafts, but it would have been too risky to use them in this situation.

It wasn’t immediately clear what had caused the ship to list.