'It's more powerful than we thought' captured on El Faro's black box

Since Tuesday’s National Transportation Safety Board news conference, Action News Jax has been going through the 510-page audio transcript of El Faro’s voyage data recorder or black box.

In it contains never-before-seen details, including how the crew grew frustrated with conflicting weather reports and didn’t anticipate just how quickly Hurricane Joaquin would develop.

At 8:24 p.m., the day before the sinking, 3rd mate Jeremie Riehm said “(let's) see how this thing goes. We can't outrun it you know. It's more powerful than we thought.”

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The audio recording began at 5:37 a.m. on Sept. 30. The black box captured conversations of Capt. Michael Davidson and chief mate Steven Schultz agreeing to change course, a move they believed would keep them safe from Joaquin’s eye.

At 8:31 a.m., the morning before the ship sunk, Davidson is heard saying: “Tough to plan when you don't know but we made a little diversion here. We're going to be further south of the eye. We'll be about 60 miles south of the eye.”

The idea was to sail underneath the storm, or so they thought based on the information they received. Action News Jax has reported that the crew at one point was working with a storm track that was 21 hours old, according to the Marine Board of Investigation hearings.

After concerns over the ship’s speed were voiced, at 12:09 p.m., 2nd mate Danielle Randolph is heard saying “Who cares what time we get there? As long as we get there.”

Gallery: El Faro crew members

A total of 10 hours of audio transcription was released. The rest was determined irrelevant or nothing was said. To put that into perspective, the NTSB said it usually transcribes about two hours of black box audio.

The most harrowing and chilling accounts are detailed at the very end of the transcription when Davidson tries to encourage an able seaman to move and not panic.

“Get into your, get into your rafts. Throw all your rafts (into) the water,” said Davidson. “Everybody. Everybody. Get off. Get off the ship stay together.”

TRANSCRIPT: The data recorder from El Faro

“Come on (Able Seaman 1). Gotta move. (We) gotta move. You gotta get up. You gotta snap out of it, and we gotta get out,” said Davidson.

The recording ends at 7:39 a.m.

Cox Media Group