New “Ships of Interest List” Added to Project Lighthouse (El Faro)

Here are the Project Lighthouse (El Faro) rankings of the Ships of Interest List. They are determined by weighted scores of ship inspections, casualties, injuries, pollution incidents and age — all factors known to be used by the Coast Guard in identifying inspection boarding priorities. 

The study draws on Coast Guard Misle data for 2017 and 2018. More recent data is not available or included here. The Matsonia, a sister ship of the El Faro, suffered a hull fracture in 2019, for example, but that data is not included here.  Project Lighthouse created the list after the Coast Guard denied its request for a list of 53 vessels the Coast Guard had deemed “high risk.”

Mariners following the Matsonia also have said that the vessel cannot be compared to the El Faro because the Matsonia is meticulously maintained and sails mostly in quiet Pacific waters. 

Nevertheless, her age, number of casualties, injuries and inspections places the old ship in the top position.

VESSEL	SHIP OF INTEREST SCORE
Matsonia	119
Cape Horn	110
Mokihana	99
Str Wilfred Sykes	93
Cape Hudson	93
Horizon Spirit	89
Chemical Pioneer	71
RJ Peiffer	61
Matson Consumer	59
Maui	59
Horizon Reliance	59
Walter McCarthy Jr	59
Sulphur Enterprise	58
Antares	57
Horizon Enterprixe	57
Resolve	55
Texas Enterpise	54
Cape Henry	51
Golden Bear	48
Natinal Glory	48
Matson Tacoma	48
Global Sentinel	44
Florida Voyager`	42
Matson Anchorage	40
Green Lake	39
Cape Vincent	36
Freedom	34
Green Ridge	27

Project Lighthouse (El Faro) data on passenger ships, dive boats, ferries and other vessels is available here.