Authorities Search Cargo Ship for Stowaways

U N A L A S K A, Alaska, Sept. 7 -- Immigration officials began searchingcargo containers for stowaways today on a ship that was divertedto this Aleutian port after crew members heard mysterious poundingnoises.

No signs of human occupancy were found in searches of three of1,556 containers on the 860-foot Manoa, examined at amaintenance warehouse earlier, Coast Guard spokeswomanMarsha Delaney said.

“Because we haven’t discovered anyone yet, to me that’s asuccess,” said Mike Conway, deputy director of the Immigration andNaturalization Service in Alaska.

Authorities will decide later today whether to search morecontainers, Conway said.

The first to be searched was the one into which crew memberspunched an air hole and lowered food and water after hearing thepounding Sunday.

Coming From China

The container had been taken aboard in Qingdao, China, and wasamong more than 200 loaded in China, officials from the shippingcompany APL said. The manifest listed its cargo as human hair to bemade into wigs.

The two other containers apparently were stacked above and belowthat one.

The incident renewed concern over stowaways and human smugglingattempts on the West Coast. In the past 18 months, 303 people havebeen taken into custody after being found aboard containers fromcargo ships bound for Seattle, Los Angeles, Vancouver, BritishColumbia, and other ports, INS officials said.

Three people were found dead inside a container on a ship thatarrived in Seattle in January. Fifteen survivors found in thecontainer remain in the United States pending reviews of theirrequests for asylum.

In addition, 58 illegal Chinese immigrants died in anunventilated truck in June during a smuggling attempt into Britain.

Hard to Get to

The Manoa originally was headed for Oakland, Calif., but changedcourse to make an emergency stop in the port of Dutch Harbor lateWednesday.

The sound was traced to a non-refrigerated container, secondfrom the bottom in a stack of seven on the tightly packed ship. Thecontainer couldn’t be opened because the space between thecontainers was too narrow.