Although the conditions in the search area have been horrendous, seems the odds of being able to find a life ring, but not a 735' container ship, are pretty long, I'm afraid...

Sounds like there actually were some initial hits from transponders, which might point to the likely prospect to a rapid rollover, not at all a remote possibility of a ship lying beam-to in such conditions...

This from a poster on another forum, a guy from Maine who had 2 classmates who were aboard EL FARO, perhaps those Tom referred to...

"the information I'm getting from the network of maine maritime alums is that the first pings were from 2 containers which had GPS transponders on them then the ships EPIRB ping was picked up later. problem is now the EPIRB has gone silent and nothing more than a few life rings have been found. combine that with the initial report from the ship they had lost power, we're experiencing flooding and were carrying a 15 degree list, also the fact that a deep draft ship without power will lay beam to the seas in short order that speaks to me of a ship that rolled then sank very quickly. this one is unfortunately hitting very close to home, 2 of my schoolmates were aboard that ship."