piled high with 391 containers plus 294 vehicles. among them according to the massachusetts maritime academy graduate school, chief griffin. mariners don t fear too much but they fear this, when their shipmates, their schoolmates, their friends, their family members are involved in a marine tragedy. reporter: the main maritime academy says there are reports four of their graduates were also on board. alexander field, cnn, new york. just terrible. we ll of course, be following this and storm-related stories throughout the night. we turn to politics and polling that shows donald trump leading but by a slimmer margin. the latest nbc news university numbers out of iowa showing a five-point trump lead over dr. ben carson and carly fiorina in third place. a month ago he was up seven points over dr. carson.
how long can you survive? in warm water four to five days and look at the arof it, these are trained mariners. they know how to properly abandon ship. they know how to survive in the water. reporter: the coast guard says the ship lost power thursday morning but officials haven t explained why leaving it vulnerable to the force of the waves and previously taken on water and was already leaning over. 28 americans and five polish nationals all on board a ship piled high with 391 containers plus 294 vehicles. among them according to the massachusetts school, graduates. mariners don t fear too much but fear this, when their shipmates, their schoolmates, their friends, their family members are involved in a marine tragedy. reporter: the main maritime academy says there are reports four of their graduates were
391 containers. so had a lot of top side height to it where the winds and waves could hit it. had 294 trailers and automobiles below deck. so it was heavy, it was weighted down. we also know that the vessel had a list to it meaning it was leaning over about 15 degrees because they had some water intrusion earlier. that just increases the danger of the situation that they were in to be able to survive that type of condition. what are the ocean depths in this area and the rurncurrents, they pushing north? the depth where we believe the vessel sank is 15,000 feet. so very deep. right now based on our search planning efforts, we think the vessel or survivors could potentially drift to the north. and that s how i ve described those debris fields. one is near the last known position but another one is 60 miles to the north of that. that validates when we find all these things it validates our search efforts and we could really hone in on where survivors might be.
going forward. the national transportation safety board will lead that investigation. the coast guard will be a part of that and will probably also conduct a separate investigation. that s down the road. my focus right now is on the search and rescue efforts. reporter: you concluded that the ship has sank and you mentioned last week that the ship lost power reported losing power. what happens in that kind of sea. 50-foot waves, i think you said. what happens? yeah. the worst spot for any ship to be in, when you re disabled, lost all propulsion, have you no means to move that vessel. you become very susceptible. you fall into the trough, basically, between the waves. you fall to the waves so everything is hitting you from the side. you look at 140-mile-an-hour winds, 50-foot seas hitting you from the side. the vessel was carrying 391 containers so it had a lot of topside height to it where the winds and waves could hit it.
move. could a vessel like this actually tip over? is the center of gravity higher? so any ship is very vulnerable when it s without propulsion. when they became disabled thursday morning, they were wallowing in the seas. so even a larger ship like this, it s very dangerous. with these heavy winds and heavy sea conditions, it makes them vulnerable to damage from both the seas and winds. they were carrying 391 containers topside and 240 automobiles and trailers beneath. so they had a lot of cargo on board. they were a full load. so the seas were hitting them from the side, so they were in a vulnerable position. wow. captain, thanks so much, from the coast guard. thanks for being with us. i am joined now by christine dennison, an ocean explorer. christine, you heard the captain from the coast guard just now.