Feds comb NJ container ship for stowaways

June 28, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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By Samantha Henry

Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. — Dock workers rushed to unload containers stacked on top of one another inside a cargo ship that arrived in New Jersey from the Middle East yesterday, after Coast Guard officials heard knocking from one during a routine inspection, suggesting that stowaways might be on board.

More than a dozen ambulances and law enforcement officials met the 850-foot vessel when it docked early Wednesday at Port Newark, one of the nation’s busiest ports. Large mechanical cranes began unloading containers from the ship.

By yesterday afternoon, all but one ambulance had quietly left the pier. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Anthony Bucci said the search had been narrowed down to one area of the ship.

The Coast Guard team had boarded the ship outside New York Harbor yesterday as the ship prepared to dock, spokesman Charles Rowe said. The officers were knocking on containers during a sound check, “and they knocked on this one and they heard a knocking back,” spokeswoman Michelle Krupa told the Star-Ledger of Newark.

The team followed protocol and didn’t open the container at sea in order to control the situation, Coast Guard spokesman Charles Rowe said.

Drew Barry, of the Sandy Hook Pilots Association, said he boarded the vessel about 20 miles offshore to help pilot it into port.

“There are at least 30 to 40 containers on top of the hatch cover, and I don’t know how many more below it,” Barry said. “If there are people down there, with no food and water for days, they’re probably pretty desperate by now.”

He estimated yesterday morning that it would take several hours, if not much of the day, to get to the part of the ship, below the hatch cover, where officials heard banging noises.

The container, which a manifest said was carrying machine parts to Norfolk, Va., was loaded in India, Rowe said.

The ship began its voyage May 30 in the United Arab Emirates, then made one stop in Pakistan and two stops in India. Its last port before Newark was in Egypt on June 15.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement yesterday that officials are conducting a “thorough investigation of the vessel.”