Lost ship:

Engine room work one of issues likely to be probed.

NTSB launches probe into sinking of cargo ship in Hurricane Joaquin.

— On board the 790-foot El Faro when it set out on its doomed voyage into the path of Hurricane Joaquin were five Polish workers whose job was to prepare the engine room for a retrofitting.

Could that work have caused the loss of power that led to the U.S. container ship’s sinking?

The vessel’s owners say they don’t believe so, but the question — along with the captain’s decision to plot a course near the storm — will almost certainly be part of an investigation launched Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board into the disaster near the

that may have claimed 33 lives.

“We don’t have all the answers, I’m sorry for that. I wish we did,” Anthony Chiarello, president and CEO of ship owner Tote Inc., told reporters. “But we will find out what happened.”

The 41-year-old El Faro was scheduled to be retired from Caribbean duty and retrofitted in the coming months for service between the West Coast and Alaska, said Phil Greene, another Tote executive.

The El Faro and its equally aged sister vessel were being replaced on the Jacksonville-to-Puerto Rico run by two brandnew ships capable of carrying much more cargo and emitting less pollution.

When the El Faro left Jacksonville on Sept. 29, the five Polish workers came along with 28 U.S. crew members to do some prepatory work in the engine room, according to Greene. But “I don’t believe based on the work they were doing that they would have had anything to do with what affected the propulsion,” said the retired Navy admiral.

The NTSB dispatched a team from Washington to investigate.

“It’s just a tragic, tragic situation,” NTSB vice chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr said.

The El Faro had no history of engine failure, Greene said, and the company said the vessel was modernized in 1992 and 2006. Company records show it underwent its last annual Coast Guard inspection in March.

F. John Nicoll, a retired captain who spent years piloting the run to Puerto Rico, said he doubts the age of the El Faro was a factor, noting that there are many older ships plying U.S. waters without incident.