I already posted about the tragic sinking of the H.M.S. Bounty, but now there is more information to share.
The heroic efforts of rescuers and the what is now known of the fate of the two aboard who did not make it back to safety.
HMS Bounty: A tall ship’s final hours in hurricane-ravaged seas
The tall ship began to die early Monday morning in the hurricane-ravaged waters off the North Carolina coast. One of the HMS Bounty’s generators failed. Water flooded everywhere. The 180-foot-long, three-masted tall ship was losing power and propulsion.
By about 3 a.m., the Bounty’s once-optimistic Facebook page, which on Sunday had posted “So far so good!” in its daily updates, had issued a new message for its followers: “Your Prayers are needed.”
“Rest assured that the Bounty is safe and in very capable hands,” the Facebook page’s administrator wrote. “Bounty’s current voyage is a calculated decision . . . NOT AT ALL . . . irresponsible or with a lack of foresight as some have suggested. The fact of the matter is . . . A SHIP IS SAFER AT SEA THAN IN PORT!”
But Sunday night, the hurricane was proving too much for the Bounty. The ship sent out a distress signal at 9 p.m., according to the Coast Guard. Two hours later, the HMS organization called the Coast Guard, confirming that it had lost radio contact with the vessel.
A Coast Guard C-130 aircraft arrived at the scene an hour later to make direct contact with the Bounty and survey the scene, about 90 miles off Cape Hatteras.
When the captain ordered everyone off the ship about 4:30 a.m., three people struggled to climb into the two lifeboats and were smacked by a wave, the Coast Guard said. One man fell into the water, but others pulled him into one of the boats. Walbridge and Christian were thrown into the water and disappeared.
Christian’s body was recovered Monday night, but Walbridge remained unaccounted for.
While the HMS Bounty and its crew foundered in the dark, Steve Bonn was woken from a sound sleep in Camden, N.C., about 4:15 a.m. by his ringing cellphone. The 44-year-old Coast Guard helicopter pilot was needed for a mission: A big boat was sinking.
I left out a lot, for the whole story go the the
Washington Post Link
This is a really interesting story. Hate to see such a ship go down, not to mention the loss of life.
I am curious how the decision was made to make the run to St. Petersburg, FL in the face of that approaching storm.
There will be an investigation to be sure.
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. -- Coast Guard Vice Adm. Robert Parker, Operational Commander for the Atlantic Area, told "Good Morning America's" George Stephanopoulos Monday morning that a replica of the famous sailing ship the HMS Bounty had sunk and two crewmembers were unaccounted for.
The Coast Guard in Portsmouth initially received a call from the owner of the 180-foot, three- mast, tall ship late Sunday evening, saying she had lost communication with the vessel's 16-member crew. It was previously reported to be a 17-person crew.
An air crew from Elizabeth City, N.C., sent out an HC-130 Hercules aircraft to establish communications with the Bounty's crew. The vessel was taking on two feet of water an hour and had no propulsion before it sank approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras N.C., Monday.
Parker said the 16 crewmembers abandoned ship into canopied, rubber life rafts with about 10 feet of water on board.
Two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., rescued 14 people from life rafts in winds of 40 mph and 18-foot Atlantic Ocean seas.
FULL STORY
This is an interesting video of that ship during another storm.
