Zefeino Vaz was a 46-year-old crew member aboard the Malaysian-flagged bulk carrier M/V Selendang Ayu when the vessel suffered catastrophic engine failure and was left adrift in the Bering Sea off Unalaska Island on December 8, 2004. As weather conditions deteriorated, the 26-person crew began evacuation; during the rescue a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was struck by a rogue wave and crashed into the sea. Three helicopter crew and one sailor were rescued, but Zefeino and five other crewmen were swept away and never recovered.

A Coast Guard search continued for two days but was called off given 43-degree water temperatures and the missing men’s lack of survival suits; they were wearing life jackets over their street clothes and were presumed to have perished. The Selendang Ayu later broke in two, spilling an estimated 350,000 gallons of fuel oil and diesel and oiling roughly 86 miles of shoreline, with significant impacts to seabirds, sea otters, and the local ecosystem.

Does anyone have memories of the Selendang Ayu evacuation or information about the crew that could add context to what happened that day?