Stowaways feared in Newark cargo ship box

NEWARK -- Dockworkers rushed to unload stacked containers from a cargo ship that arrived in New Jersey from the Middle East Wednesday after a Coast Guard inspection team heard knocking for about two hours that suggested stowaways might be inside one of the boxes.

More than a dozen ambulances and law enforcement officials met the 850-foot Ville D'Aquarius when it docked early Wednesday at Port Newark, one of the nation's busiest ports. Large mechanical cranes began unloading containers from the ship.

By midday, all but one ambulance had quietly left the pier. Coast Guard spokesman Charles Rowe said officials have inspected 80 of the 200 containers authorities think could be carrying people. The ship has 2,000 containers.

The Coast Guard team had boarded the ship outside New York Harbor early Wednesday as the ship prepared to dock, Rowe said. The officers were knocking on a bulkhead, or partition, of the ship as a routine security check and heard knocks back, he said, which ended after about two hours. The team followed protocol and didn't open the container at sea in order to control the situation, he said.

The ship began its voyage May 30 in the United Arab Emirates, then made one stop in Pakistan and two stops in India. Its last port before Newark was in Egypt on June 15.