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A salvage team looking for the voyage data recorder for the sunken freighter El Faro said on Thursday it had located the bridge deck that separated from the wreckage, but the ship's black box was still missing. National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the search continues for the recorder, which normally is affixed to the bridge but appeared to have detached when the ship sank in a hurricane last month, killing 33 mostly American crew onboard. The bridge was located about one mile from the main wreckage, said Eric Weiss, an NTSB spokesman.

Salvage operations for the sunken cargo ship El Faro were suspended on Friday due to Tropical Storm Kate, which moved through the Bahamas with winds of 45 miles (75 km) per hour, U.S. authorities said. The El Faro sank off the southern Bahamas in a hurricane last month with the loss of 33 mostly American crew. Its wreck was located on the seafloor in 15,000 feet (4,500 meters) of water a little over a week ago. A U.S. Navy salvage tug, Apache, is searching for the ship's bridge and voyage data recorder, which became separated from the wreck, the U.S.

A U.S. Navy salvage team prepared on Sunday to launch a remotely operated submersible to confirm that wreckage discovered near the Bahamas was that of the cargo ship El Faro, lost in a hurricane last month along with its 33 crew members. The team's mission is to document the shipwreck and any debris field, and to retrieve the sunken vessel's voyage data recorder - similar to an airplane's black box - as part of an investigation into its loss, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

A lawyer for the family of a missing crew member from the El Faro cargo ship, which sank off the Bahamas in a hurricane two weeks ago, said he filed a $100 million lawsuit on Wednesday against the owners of the ship. The lawsuit on behalf of the estate of Lonnie Jordan, one of the 33 crew members presumed dead, was filed in Jacksonville, Florida, court against Tote Services Inc and Tote Maritime Puerto Rico, attorney Willie E. Gary told reporters outside the Duval County courthouse, where he was surrounded by relatives of the crew.

The owners of the cargo ship El Faro that sank after it was trapped in the path of Hurricane Joaquin off the Bahamas last week announced the creation of a family relief fund on Friday to support the 33 mostly-American families of the crew. "Over the last few days we have had hundreds of employees, mariners, customers and individuals from around the country inquire about where to donate in support of the families," Anthony Chiarello, chief executive of New Jersey-based Tote Inc, owners of the El Faro, said in a statement. The U.S.

The captain of the ill-fated cargo ship that sank in a hurricane off the Bahamas with no survivors last week was an experienced and highly trusted mariner who had spent a lifetime on the water, friends and colleagues said. The captain of El Faro, Michael Davidson of Windham, Maine, was raised in South Portland, alongside Maine's largest port, and spent summers nearby at a family home on an island in Casco Bay. The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search and rescue mission for the 28 American crew members and 5 Polish contract workers aboard El Faro on Wednesday night.

The ill-fated U.S.-flagged El Faro cargo ship sunk by Hurricane Joaquin was sailing at near full speed into the center of the storm before it lost propulsion amid mountainous waves and brutal winds, according to ship tracking data. The data on Thomson Reuters Eikon raises questions about the ship owner's assertion that the vessel's captain had chosen a "sound plan" to pass around Joaquin "with a margin of comfort" but was then thwarted by engineering problems. It shows that even…

Deep seas may complicate efforts to find the sunken U.S. cargo ship lost off the Bahamas during Hurricane Joaquin, a federal safety investigator said, as a search and rescue mission for 32 missing crew stretched into a sixth day. A U.S. National Transportation Safety Board team arrived on Tuesday in Jacksonville, Florida, the port the El Faro departed from last week en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The ship disappeared in what maritime experts have called the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than 30 years.

The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday said its crews had found a body and an empty, heavily damaged lifeboat in their search for the cargo ship El Faro, believed to have sunk after going missing off the Bahamas in Hurricane Joaquin. Rescuers are no longer looking for the ship, which sent a distress call four days ago after getting caught in the powerful storm's ferocious winds and 50-foot seas, Coast Guard Captain Mark Fedor said. He said aircrews continued to search for the missing crew - 28 U.S.

Search and rescue teams resumed scouring the seas on Monday for the missing cargo ship El Faro and it mostly American crew, after it was caught in the eye of Hurricane Joaquin four days ago, the U.S. Coast Guard said. More than 70,000 square nautical miles have been searched so far, the Coast Guard said. On Sunday, aircrews found a debris field in the vicinity of the ship's last known position, including styrofoam, wood, cargo and other items. There was no confirmation that the debris belonged to the El Faro…

Search and rescue teams on Sunday located debris which appeared to belong to the cargo ship El Faro that went missing in the eye of Hurricane Joaquin with 33 mostly American crew members aboard, the U.S. Coast Guard and the ship's owner said. Life jackets, containers and an oil sheen were spotted by U.S. Coast Guard aircrews flying over the Bahamas on the third day of their search for the container ship. There had been no sighting of the El Faro or any life boats, Tote Maritime Puerto Rico president, Tim Nolan, said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers remain with the 33 individuals aboard the ship and their families," he added.

The fate of more than 30 crew aboard a cargo ship that ran afoul of Hurricane Joaquin off the Bahamas was unknown on Friday as the powerful storm battered the island chain for a second day. News of the missing vessel came as forecasters shifted the likely track of the powerful storm further away from the U.S. East Coast, but there were still warnings about the potential for severe flooding in the Carolinas from unrelated heavy rains. A potentially catastrophic Category 4 hurricane on a scale of 1 to 5…

The White House is drafting sweeping regulations to further weaken the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba that would ease restrictions on U.S. companies and make it safer for Americans to travel there, U.S. government sources said on Thursday. The regulations could be announced as soon as Friday. U.S. companies would be allowed to establish offices in Cuba for the first time in more than half a century, according to a draft of the new rules seen by Reuters. The regulations make it easier for airlines and cruise ships to import parts and technology to improve safety in Cuba; loosen restrictions on software exports; and allow authorized companies to establish subsidiaries with Cuba, possibly via joint ventures with Cuban firms such as state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa.

Hurricane Fred strengthened early Monday in the eastern Atlantic as it approached the Cape Verde Islands, while the remnants of Tropical Storm Erika brought flooding to parts of South Carolina, according to U.S. forecasters. The center of Fred is expected to pass near or over the northwestern Cape Verde Islands, an archipelago off the west coast of Africa with a population of 525,000. Fred had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (137 kph), but was expected to gradually dissipate after passing the Cape Verde Islands, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Tropical Storm Erika lashed Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with heavy rain and fierce winds on Friday, moving across the Caribbean and apparently heading for the Dominican Republic, northern Haiti and eventually South Florida, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Due to some likely weakening over the Dominican Republic, Erika was no longer forecast to make U.S. landfall as a hurricane. It could still smack the Miami area with sustained winds of 60 miles per hour (97 kph) on Monday, however, before sweeping northward up the Florida peninsula, affecting Orlando's popular theme parks.

Charlotte-based manufacturer Curtiss-Wright Corp. has won a series of contracts valued at $480 million to supply parts for the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-Class nuclear submarines. The Navy’s Block IV Virginia Class Submarine Program covers 10 submarines, two per year from fiscal years 2014 through 2018, according to a statement from Curtiss-Wright. So far, more than $330 million has been allocated to the contracts, and the remaining will be provided incrementally, the company said. Two Curtiss-Wright divisions are performing the work under the contracts, and engineering and manufacturing will continue through 2019. “These submarines remain critically important to our national defense, and our continuous improvement and cost reduction initiatives have supported the U.S.

A U.S. federal jury has begun its deliberations on whether a former BP Plc  executive lied about how much oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010. Prosecutors and a lawyer for defendant David Rainey made their closing arguments to the jury on Friday morning in a case brought by the government over statements Rainey made to agents from the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nearly a year after the spill. Rainey, BP's former vice president of exploration in the Gulf, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison if found guilty of willfully making a fraudulent statement to federal law enforcement agents. The April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig led to 11 deaths and the largest U.S.

The Atlantic Ocean will see a below-average number of hurricanes this season due to cooler seas and a strong El Niño effect, the U.S. government weather forecaster announced on Wednesday.   The forecast calls for six to 11 tropical storms this year, with three to six reaching hurricane status, including possibly two major hurricanes with winds reaching at least 111 miles-per-hour (178 kph), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said at a press conference in New Orleans.     (Reporting by David Adams; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

The former chief executive of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd sued Richard Branson's Virgin Group in federal court in Miami for $300 million on Wednesday over plans by the British billionaire to launch his own luxury cruise line.   The lawsuit by Colin Veitch, who oversaw Norwegian from 2000 to 2008, claims that Virgin muscled him out of a joint venture to break into the industry with massive ships capable of carrying thousands of passengers and operating as floating resorts, according to court documents.     (Reporting by Zachary Fagenson; Editing by David Adams and Eric Walsh)

Catamaran builder Brian Hall is too young to remember when ferries plied the route between Florida and Cuba in the 1950s, but he has plans to be among the first to revive the once-popular route. Boosted by President Barack Obama's policy of seeking to normalize relations with the Communist-ruled island after decades of U.S. isolation, Hall hopes to offer a high-speed catamaran service between the Florida Keys and Havana, perhaps as soon as this year. "My partners and I are ready to start operating as soon as we get the go-ahead," said Hall, 49, president of CubaKat, an offshoot of Fort Lauderdale-based catamaran builder, KonaCat. He is not alone. At least half a dozen Florida companies are seriously considering ferry ventures, with plans to seek licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued 33 Cuban migrants from an overloaded boat taking on water off the southeast Florida coast on Wednesday, two days after 11 Cubans were pulled from the waters off the coast of Miami, officials said. Some of the 33 Cubans jumped in the water when they were spotted on Wednesday morning about 7 miles (11 km) east of Boca Raton, Florida, the Coast Guard said in a press release. "Upon our assets arriving on scene, the suspected migrants were taken aboard Coast Guard smallboat and safely transferred to a Coast Guard Cutter for basic medical attention if needed," the Coast Guard said. Two men are still missing from the group found clinging to debris from their wrecked raft on Monday.

The U.S. Coast Guard searched on Tuesday for two missing Cuban rafters after the 11 others on their homemade vessel were plucked safely on Monday from the waters off Miami. The most recent man saved was discovered at dusk on Monday about 10 miles (16 km) offshore and transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Coast Guard spokeswoman Sabrina Laberdesque. The rescued members of the all-male group say they spent more than a week on the water trying to cross the 90-mile-wide (145-km-wide) Florida Straits that separate Cuba from the United States. It remains unclear how many of them will be allowed to remain in the United States and how many will be repatriated to Cuba. Under Washington's "wet-foot, dry-foot policy," Cuban migrants who make it onto U.S.

Power was knocked out to 80 percent of Bermuda's electricity grid due to Hurricane Gonzalo, the island's only power company, Bermuda Electric Light Co., said on Friday evening.   The company reported that about 29,000 customers were without electricity, out of 36,000 metered connections. The eyewall of Hurricane Gonzalo made a direct hit on Bermuda on Friday evening, becoming the strongest storm to hit the tiny Atlantic island chain in a decade, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. (Writing by David Adams; Editing by Ken Wills)