No Signs of Stowaways Found in Sealed Container on Ship

Federal officials found no signs of stowaways Thursday on a cargo ship diverted to an Alaskan port after its captain became alarmed that one or more people might be trapped inside a sealed shipping container.

The incident aboard the MV Manoa, on its way to San Pedro from China and other Asian ports, began Sunday when crew members said they heard a pounding noise coming from inside a cargo container deep inside the ship’s hold.

But when the 40-foot-long container and others surrounding it were unloaded and searched at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, early Thursday, federal agents found only cardboard boxes filled with dry goods.

“The bottom line is that at some point the captain believed that this was a matter of safety and they did what they had to do,” said Jennifer Bronson, a spokeswoman for American President Lines, an Oakland company that had chartered the 861-foot vessel.

The ship had taken on the cargo container in Quingdao, China. U.S. officials say Chinese smuggling rings increasingly are hiding stowaways inside sealed cargo containers bound for the United States, where the illegal immigrants hope to find work.

After hearing sounds they believed were coming from inside the container, the Manoa’s crew tried unsuccessfully to make contact with any stowaways who might be inside. But the container was jammed in tightly among 2,400 others in the ship’s hold and crew members were unable to do more than pump air and drop food and water through a small hole they cut in the container’s top.