It's been a year since the Golden Ray, a massive cargo ship loaded with cars, capsized in Brunswick after a fire on board, trapping 24 crewmen.
It happened in the overnight hours of Sept. 7, 2019, and lasted until the next day. Twenty of the Golden Ray crew were rescued shortly after the capsize, four of them were trapped inside the hull.
The U.S. Coast Guard sawed right through the side of the ship to get them all out alive and safe. In the months since then, the ship has sat in the St. Simons Sound while salvage crews prepare to chop it up and move it out.
A Brunswick woman says she remembers how “happily exhausted” she was to help the crew after they were rescued.
“I said, ‘what?’” Vicki West, executive director of the International Seafarers Center in Brunswick recalls.
West got a phone call during church that the crew was waiting at their Brunswick office.
“When I got here, they had nothing except the clothes on their back. I said they didn’t have an identity because they had no ID on them,” West said. “I’ll never forget, one of the little seafarers found a pair of Santa Claus pajama bottoms. And he fell in love with those things…three days later I went to check on them and the Filipino worker still had those pajama bottoms on."
The center’s clothes closet was used up. Grandy’s, a local restaurant donated lunch to the crew that Sunday. A pastor from nearby St. Francis Xavier Church took them to Sunday mass the day the ship capsized.
“In all honesty, their attitude was wonderful. They were smiling and just grateful to be alive,” West said.
West says the crew was also confident their four colleagues trapped on board would be rescued.
Cap Fendig mobilized boats and crews early Sunday morning when he learned the ship capsized.
“The lights were out, the power was off, people were scattered throughout the ship, we weren’t sure what happened because all communications were pretty much cut off,” Fendig said.
A year later, the ship has lifting lugs installed on the ship’s starboard side to assist in the cutting operations.
The U.S. Coast Guard says the plan is to start cutting the ship into eight large pieces, lift each one onto a barge for salvage.
Once cutting starts, the operation must continue for 24 hours, according to a Coast Guard spokesperson.
That phase of the operation is set to start in early October.
Fendig has concerns about potential environmental impacts.
“What’s going to happen? Will cars drop? What pollution…will fires catch on in place? It’s a really dangerous and unknown adventure coming forth,” Fendig said.
There are several factors that could delay the salvage operation.
One thing that West recalls is how the Brunswick community donated food, clothing and supplies to the Golden Ray’s crew in their time of need.
“It was a tragedy but it was just so heartwarming to see how the community stepped up and took care of these gentlemen,” West said.
The U.S. Coast Guard external affairs office in Miami tells First Coast News it will release its findings on the capsize in the coming weeks.