Crew rescued from listing ship

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The crew members were cut and bruised, thirsty and ravenous when they arrived on the Alaska island, their muscles deeply strained from hours and hours spent clinging to a ship that abruptly leaned into the North Pacific.

Only 10 minutes passed between the time the Cougar Ace began listing in rough seas and the time it was almost lying on its side, giving crews little time to send out a distress signal, nurse practitioner Michael Terry said Tuesday from a clinic on Adak Island. He was among the locals who took in most of the ship’s 23 crew members after their rescue late Monday ended a daylong ordeal 230 miles to the south.

“These guys are thrilled right now,” Terry said. “They feel so fortunate, so grateful things weren’t worse.”

Crew members were instructed not to discuss the matter, ship captain Nyi Nyi Tun said through a clinic worker. But earlier Tuesday, the 46-year-old Myanmar man told the Associated Press he and his shipmates were resting and could not talk. “For us it is the middle of the night,” he said.

The captain, however, told Terry that the Cougar Ace began shifting sharply after the ship was hit by a large wave while the ballast was being adjusted. Terry said rescuers told him the adjustment was made to conform to U.S. codes as the ship prepared to leave international waters.

Terry said ship was carrying nearly 5,000 cars from Japan to the West Coast.