Polish riding crew had been doing work in El Faro engine room

Among the work being done to convert El Faro to the Alaska trade was the installation of a heater in the engine room.

TOTE Services Port Engineer Tim Neeson confirmed to a Marine Board Investigation that would mean a special Polish work gang was active in the ship's engine room on the leg immediately prior to her fatal voyage- and possibly on the one where the ship went down.

Neeson told investigators they were aiming to get El Faro fully in service in the Alaskan trade by the end of the year, and there was a lot still to be done.

“There was pressure throughout the whole conversion,” he says.

Emails unveiled by investigators Friday showed TOTE officials confirming that on the trip from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Jacksonville- which was just a few days before the El Faro would head back out and ultimately sink in Hurricane Joaquin- workers built a stand in the engine room to accommodate the loading of the heater while El Faro was in port. Emails further said the rest of the stand would be built around the heater during the southern trip.

Until now, witnesses have told investigators they did not believe the Polish workers were involved in the engine room, or that they were doing hot work in that area.

In order to get the heater in place, Neeson says they opened a special “soft patch”, a roughly two or three foot hole secured by heavy bolts built for the sole purpose of loading the heater in to the engine room. Neeson says it was likely years since the hatch had last been opened.

“By the condition, it hadn’t been opened in quite awhile,” he said.

He told investigators that, by the time El Faro left, the soft patch was secured once again, but he had not personally inspected it.

Ahead of the Alaskan service, Neeson says he was anticipating two dry dock periods for El Faro- the first in the Bahamas and the later in Washington. He says the company who services the El Faro's boilers is based out of Washington, so it made sense to do the work there.

The surveyor recommended a long list of work on the boilers, although Neeson says they estimated another six months of work before the issues needed to be addressed. He had started the process of invoicing some of the work.

While Neeson confirmed the Polish riding crew had been working in El Faro's engine room, he gave no indication that work would have influenced the ship operations. He told investigators he has no idea what caused the ship to lose propulsion ahead of going down in the Category Four hurricane.

Another frequent line of questioning through the hearing was whether the crew was able to easily communicate with the Polish riding crew. Many of the witnesses admitted that it could be challenging, however, there was always at least one crew member who was mostly fluent in English.