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 An exhaustive air and sea search for possible survivors was called
off at sunset, six days after communication was lost with the ship
and the 33 people aboard, the Coast Guard said.
The decision came a day after federal safety officials arrived in
Jacksonville, Florida, El Faro's home port, to launch an
investigation into what maritime experts have called the worst cargo
shipping disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than 30
years.
The White House issued a statement as the search was winding down,
promising "the grieving families of El Faro" full government support
in the investigation into what happened to the ship.
"May God bless the men and women of the El Faro," it said.
The ship's owners, Tote Maritime Puerto Rico, believe the ship sank
last Thursday after suffering engine failure during its weekly run
from Jacksonville to San Juan, Puerto Rico, leaving it at the mercy
of Joaquin off the southern Bahamas.
 Officials had acknowledged earlier that chances of finding survivors
were remote, given that the 790-foot (240-meter) ship, piled high
with containers, disappeared in the middle of a ferocious storm with
high seas whipped up by winds of 130 miles (215 km) per hour.
The body of only one presumed crew member was found during the
search. El Faro was carrying 28 U.S. crew members and five Polish
contractors when it set out from Jacksonville.
"Everybody's crying. It's not a good situation," said Terrence
Meadows, 36, a merchant marine junior engineer who knew some of El
Faro's crew. He spoke after joining grieving relatives at the
Seafarers International Union hall in Jacksonville as word began to
spread, ahead of the official announcement, that the search for
survivors was ending.
"To be absolutely honest, I knew everyone was dead. We don't get
trained to survive in a hurricane in the ocean," Meadows said.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will continue
searching for the wreckage of El Faro, though deep seas will likely
hamper the effort, said an official spearheading the investigation.
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The stretch of ocean where the ship is believed to have gone down,
along a heavily transited shipping channel, is nearly three miles (5
km) deep.
NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr said her team will be listening
for the pinging of El Faro's voyage data recorder, or VDR, which is
similar to the black boxes on airplanes. The device preserves the
last 12 hours of engine orders and communications from the bridge.
It was supposed to start pinging its location as soon as it touched
water, Dihn-Zarr said, but searchers have yet to hear it.
Dinh-Zarr said the decisions of El Faro's captain and the route the
ship took, as well the pressure to deliver its cargo, will be
scrutinized as part of an investigation into "the human factor"
behind the disaster.
"We will be studying the meteorological conditions and all of the
factors that went into the decision-making to sail on that day and
to continue to sail," she said.
The investigation will also look at when and why the engine failed,
and if there were problems before the ship left port, she said.
Barry Young, whose nephew LeShawn Riviera, 32, was one of the crew,
said he hoped the investigation would lead to better safeguards for
all mariners.
"There must be a greater emphasis on the safety of the crew and of
the lives of the people on board these ships over the delivery of
cargo," Young said.
(Writing by David Adams in Miami; Editing by Tom Brown)
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