The US National Transportation and Safety Board on Sunday released underwater video showing the wreckage of the doomed El Faro freighter, which disappeared with 33 crew members on October 1 and was found in deep water off the Bahamas a month later.

The wreckage, in an upright position and intact on the ocean floor, was initially detected by a US Navy salvage team at a depth of nearly five kilometres. It was found in the vicinity of El Faro's last known location off Crooked Island in the southeastern Bahamas, the US National Transportation Safety Board said in November.

The wreck has been sitting in such deep water - 760 meters deeper than the Titanic - that it is beyond the reach of divers.

The video was taken by a remotely operated submersible, CURV-21, deployed by the US Navy to confirm the identity of the ship. The 2.4 meter CURV-21 is designed to operate in depths up to almost six kilometres and has arms that can be remotely manipulated via a fiber-optic cable, the Navy said.

The 241 meter cargo ship disappeared on a regular weekly run between Florida and Puerto Rico after the captain reported losing propulsion and taking on water.

It sank as Hurricane Joaquin approached, carrying a crew that included 28 Americans and five Poles. There were no known survivors in what was the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a US-flagged vessel since 1983.