On October 1, 2015, the cargo ship SS El Faro steamed directly into the path of Hurricane Joaquin and vanished with all 33 crew members aboard. Join Alice and Zach as they unravel how a routine "milk run" between Jacksonville and Puerto Rico became America's worst maritime disaster in decades. Discover the deadly combination of outdated weather data, corporate pressure, ignored warnings, and mechanical failures that turned a survivable storm into an unsurvivable nightmare. Through audio recovered from three miles beneath the Atlantic, hear the final hours of a crew fighting against impossible odds—and learn how their deaths changed maritime safety forever.

Sources:

• National Transportation Safety Board Marine Accident Report MAR-17/01: "Sinking of US Cargo Vessel SS El Faro, Atlantic Ocean, Northeast of Acklins and Crooked Island, Bahamas, October 1, 2015"
• U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation Final Report (September 24, 2017)
• NTSB Voyage Data Recorder Audio Transcript (510 pages)
• Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro by Rachel Slade (HarperCollins, 2018)
• "The Clock is Ticking: Inside El Faro" by William Langewiesche, Vanity Fair (April 2018)
• CBS News 60 Minutes: "Voices of the Lost" (March 5, 2017)
• House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing transcripts (January 30, 2018)
• The Working Waterfront: "'Into the Raging Sea' details human failings that cursed El Faro"

Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online:

• Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @FinalBoardingCallPod
• Facebook: Final Boarding Call

Credits: Final Boarding Call is hosted by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas, researched and written by Alice Stern, produced and edited by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas.