Stunning photos of the sinking of a ship: everyone was saved in almost 36 hours

Coast Guard members on Monday rescued the fourth and last member of the crew from a freighter, drilling steel plates from the hull of the ship to take them over a day. after the capsizing of the ship when he left. A port of Georgia.

The four members of the crew were aware and were in a relatively good condition. They were taken to the hospital for further examinations.

"The best day of my 16-year career," said Lieutenant Lloyd Heflin, Coast Guard's Coast Guard Operations Coordinator, in a text message to The badociated press.

Three crew members of South Korean nationality were rescued in the middle of the afternoon. The latter, stuck in another compartment, left the boat three hours later.

The rescue operations were carried out after nearly 36 hours of work after the Golden Ray, a huge ship carrying cars, stopped on Sunday morning as he was leaving Brunswick for Baltimore.

"All members are safe," writes the Southeast Coast Guard office in its Twitter account. "From now on, operations will focus entirely on protecting the environment, removing the vessel and relaunching trade."

In the hours immediately following the accident, the Coast Guard used 20 helicopters to rescue 20 crew members before determining that the smoke, flames and instability of the cargo created conditions. too dangerous to enter the ship.

The authorities were also concerned about the stability of the vessel, which was carrying 4,000 vehicles, some of which could have been released at the time of the accident.

Such a situation left the rescuers in search of the four missing crew members.

At first, the rescue teams were not sure if the noises they heard inside the ship were caused by the vehicles colliding with each other. But by the early hours of Monday, the certainty that the blows were in response to them increased, indicating that there were people alive inside the boat.

"It's remarkable when I heard on the news this morning that the night was shaken," said Captain John Reed, who added that the sound was helping rescuers get to the right place aboard the 200 meters (656 feet). ) and was an incentive.

"They were motivated knowing that there were people alive," said Reed.

Jeff Amy and Stephen Morton | AP