The Virginian-Pilot
NEWARK, N.J. — Dock workers rushed to unload stacked containers from a cargo ship bound for Hampton Roads that arrived in New Jersey from the Middle East on Wednesday after a Coast Guard inspection team heard knocking for about two hours that suggested stowaways might be inside one of the boxes.
More than a dozen ambulances and law enforcement officials met the 850-foot Ville D’Aquarius when it docked early Wednesday at Port Newark. Large mechanical cranes began unloading containers from the ship.
By evening, authorities said officials had inspected 150 of the 200 containers authorities believe could be carrying people.
The Coast Guard team boarded the ship outside New York Harbor early Wednesday as the ship prepared to dock, spokesman Charles Rowe said.
The officers were knocking on a bulkhead, or partition, of the ship as a security check and heard knocks back, he said, but they couldn’t pinpoint the source of the sound.
The Department of Homeland Security, which was also involved in the investigation, said Wednesday that its officers and agents were prepared to continue examining containers through the night.
The container ship, which a manifest said was carrying machine parts to Hampton Roads, was loaded in India, Rowe said.
The ship began its voyage May 30 in the United Arab Emirates, then made one stop in Pakistan and two stops in India. Its last port before Newark was in Egypt on June 15.
The ship, operated by CMA CGM, was scheduled to arrive Friday in Hampton Roads and to dock at APM Terminals Virginia in Portsmouth, according to the website of Virginia International Terminals Inc., which runs the facilities of the Virginia Port Authority.
“The system worked,” said Joe Harris, a Port Authority spokesman. “The Coast Guard boarded this vessel and was doing its job and this is what they came up with.”
Harris said port officials didn’t know how the incident would affect the ship’s itinerary.
This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and Pilot writer Robert McCabe.
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