2 Killed, 16 Trapped As Freighter Runs Aground

Powerful gusts drove a foreign freighter aground, leaving two crewmen dead and 16 others stranded for hours on the rocks off Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands 800 miles southwest of here.

The 368-foot vessel Kuroshima went aground Wednesday afternoon in 90 mph winds about 100 yards offshore, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard rescuers standing on shore pulled the 16 survivors to safety with a line attached to the ship’s rescue boat. High winds and heavy seas made an air or sea rescue impossible, Lt. Steve McCleary said.

McCleary said the captain was Japanese and most of the crew was Filipino. Names of the victims were not immediately released.

Petty Officer Mark Hunt said the first mate died of a heart attack and a crewman died when he was slammed into an object on board the freighter, perhaps as it ran aground.

Hunt said as much as 10,000 gallons of fuel had leaked from a ruptured tank, washing ashore and tainting a lake. The ship held 165,000 gallons when it went aground.