Ship ablaze in Pacific; crewman missing

HONOLULU — A crew member who abandoned a vessel that caught fire in the Pacific Ocean while carrying cars from Japan to Hawaii remains missing after 16 were rescued. Four other crew members were listed as unresponsive after rescue ships spotted them and lowered life rings but got no reply.

The Sincerity Ace, a 650-foot car carrier, had 21 crew members on board when the fire started Monday while it traveled to Hawaii from Japan.

The U.S. Coast Guard coordinated with merchant ships on the rescue effort as the Sincerity Ace was 2,071 miles northwest of Honolulu. The ships were able to rescue

16 of the crew members. The ships also threw down life rings attached to lines to four crew members who didn’t pull themselves up to safety.

“If the person in the water can’t grab onto something, there’s not much these … vessels can do for them,” said Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew West. The lowest deck on some of the large vessels is 25 feet to the water, he said.

The four were not in life rafts, West said, adding that the nearest Coast Guard ships are days away.

Japanese shipping company Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. owns the Panamanian-flagged vessel. The vessel was still on fire Wednesday, company spokesman Darrell Wilson said in a statement.

The cause of the fire was unknown.