The two men found dead inside the capsized Seacor Power lift were identified on Saturday by Lafourche Parish coroner as Anthony Hartford, 53, of New Orleans and James Wallingsford, 55, in northeastern Louisiana town of Gilbert.
The cause of death for Hartford and Wallingsford was still being investigated on Saturday, said the coroner, Dr John King.
Anthony Hartford, 53, of New Orleans, is shown in an undated photo provided by his family on Saturday.
Hartford and Wallingsford are one of four Seacor Power workers whose bodies have been recovered since the disaster on Tuesday with 19 on board the aak-aak. The bodies of David Ledet, a 63-year-old captain of Thibodaux, and Ernest Williams, 69, of Arnaudville, were found earlier this week. Nine crew members are still missing, and six were rescued within hours after capsizing eight miles south of Port Fourchon.
The Coast Guard said Hartford and Wallingsford were in the engine room on the harbor side of the mostly sunk vessel, which capsized in the sea on the starboard side, driven by a storm blowing hurricane-force winds.
One of Seacor Power’s extended family members on Thursday expressed hope that Hartford and Wallingsford would be pulled out alive because they had climbed to a part of the ship that was not completely submerged. But the hope was dashed by the discovery of their bodies, made by commercial divers contracted by the Seacor Power owners and working for Donjon Marine Co., based in New Jersey.
Relatives hope some still live in the capsized vessel in the Gulf of Mexico
The Seacor Power had departed from Port Fourchon and was on its way to deliver equipment to an oil platform near the mouth of the Mississippi River when it collapsed. The vessel left Port Fourchon around 13:30 on Tuesday, even though the National Weather Service had warned of tropical storms – 39 km / h or more – accompanied by ‘suddenly higher waves’ in the Gulf.
However, these winds soon reached hurricane force due to a rare weather event known as a ‘wake low’. The Seacor Power applied water and surrendered for about three hours in its voyage, which on the fifth day Saturday set the scene for an increasingly terrifying search.
About five hours after it capsized, Coast Guard rescuers noticed five crew members on the Seacor Power’s hull. Two were rescued after jumping from the hull. A third who fell into the water disappeared from the scene.
One crew member was killed and 12 were missing when U.S. Coast Guard rescuers searched the Gulf of Mexico waters for survivors.
Two others who received life jackets and radios were sent back into the vessel by a Coast Guard helicopter crew as the rescue efforts were complicated under inclement weather conditions.
Coast Guard teams recovered Ledet on Wednesday, although officials did not specify where. According to officials and relatives of others aboard the fatal elevator, the Coast Guard recovered Williams’ body in waters near Cocodrie, about 30 km west of the Seacor Power wreck.