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.