9 Afloat On Fire-Damaged Ship -- Seattle-Bound Vessel Without Power In Stormy Ocean

ANCHORAGE - The 27-person crew of a Greek-flagged container ship spent last night aboard their fire-damaged vessel floating without power in the remote North Pacific and could spend tonight there, too.

The Coast Guard said that an engine-room fire that broke out Friday was extinguished hours later and that the crew was uninjured after spending Friday night below decks, in the bow of the 798-foot Hyundai Seattle.

The boat was stranded Friday south of Adak, Alaska, in 30-foot seas and winds approaching 60 mph as it traveled from Pusan, South Korea, to Seattle.

Petty Officer Tim Ellis said from Juneau that the crew had food for at least 24 more hours. The vessel was adrift about 550 miles south of Adak Naval Air Station in the Aleutian Islands. The Coast Guard planned to drop supplies last night.

Ellis said an 800-foot Korean bulk carrier had pulled up near the Hyundai Seattle yesterday afternoon to try a ship-to-ship rescue. That plan was scrubbed when the Korean master decided the maneuver was unsafe in stormy seas.

Ellis said seas had subsided to 22 feet early yesterday evening, and winds had dropped by about half.

Spiridon Pavlopulos, captain of Hyundai Seattle, told the Anchorage Daily News by satellite phone Friday that fire broke out when he cut engines sharply to slow the vessel as it passed through the storm.

He said the smokestack caught fire. "A lot of sparks and liquid metal dropped into the engine room below," he said. "I have no engine."

The Air Force and Alaska Air Guard remained on standby at Adak to launch a helicopter rescue that officials say would require eight in-flight refuelings to complete a rescue.

The Coast Guard said hoisting the crew by cable to a helicopter overhead was a last resort only, since the Coast Guard cutter Monroe could reach the Hyundai Seattle as early as tomorrow morning.

Coast Guard Senior Chief William Boatman said overhead patrols continued to be flown by Coast Guard aircraft while a Bahamian bulk freighter, the Harefield, was traveling toward the burned boat.

The mission began Friday night when a C-5 transport plane carrying two helicopters arrived at Adak from Anchorage. Boatman said helicopter rescue was delayed after a tail rotor on one of the helicopters was nicked.

Military pilots planned to use one C-130 aircraft to refuel and a second C-130 to keep track of the mission overall. Three Air Force medical doctors were part of the rescue team.

Boatman said the Bahamian vessel had two helicopter pads where the Hyundai Seattle crew's could be set down without having to be ferried back to Adak.