The tall ship HMS Bounty has sank off the coast of North Carolina, fourteen crew members have been rescued. Two are missing.
The HMS Bounty visited Greenport during the Tall Ships Festival this summer.
The U.S. Coast Guard reported in a press release that the rescue took place 90 miles southeast of Hatteras N.C., on Monday.
Crews aboard two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., to rescue the crew.
The first Jayhawk crew arrived on scene at approximately 6:30 a.m. and hoisted five people into the aircraft, and a second helicopter arrived and rescued nine people.
The 14 people are being flown to Air Station Elizabeth City where they will be met by awaiting emergency medical services personnel.
The C-130 Hercules aircraft remains on scene and is searching for the two missing crewmembers and a third Jayhawk crew is en route to assist search and rescue efforts.
The 16 people donned cold water survival suits and life jackets before launching in two 25-man lifeboats with canopies.
Coast Guard Sector North Carolina initially received a call from the owner of the 180-foot, three mast tall ship, HMS Bounty, saying she had lost communication with the vessel’s crew late Sunday evening.
The Coast Guard 5th District command center in Portsmouth subsequently received a signal from the emergency position indicating radio beacon registered to the Bounty, confirming the distress and position.
An air crew from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City launched aboard an HC-130 Hercules aircraft, which later arrived on scene and established communications with the Bounty’s crew.
The vessel was reportedly taking on water and was without propulsion. On scene weather is reported to be 40 mph winds and 18-foot seas.
This is just a horrible story to hear about, but why in the world would the captain of a Tall Ship sail it in the middle of a hurricane?
FYI, it’s common for larger ships to go to sea, and avoid the hazards of docks/ports that become flooded and inundated with swells in major storms. The loss of propulsion seems to be the tragic issue here.
That still seems incredibly stupid to me, but thank you for explaining the logic because when I heard the story I thought the captain was being a cowboy.
I seem to remember the intentional sinking of the tall ship Regina off greenport. Several years ago to avoid damage from the storm. She was pumped out and refloated after the hurricane passed!
Yes very true many times the larger ships an yachts are urged to leave the docks due to the damage that the large ships can do with battering of docks as well as the ships themselves. If the ship lost propulsion, which it seems so here, that is just an extremely unfortunate scenario and does happen when ships engines are being taxed with all the tumbling going on in the water. This happened to my grandfather Edgar Caffrey who was coming back from the Mathews Boat club and hit heavy fog and struck something and didn’t realize the Mon Amie was taking on water and she went down everyone was ok but at least the bun cake made it s well.