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Subscribe to RSSA ship that left New London, Conn., last Thursday en route to St. Petersburg, Fla., got caught in a dangerous Hurricane Sandy while 90 miles off Cape Hatteras. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
Updated at 11:43 p.m. ET: Searchers on Monday evening found the body of one of two missing crew members of the stricken ship HMS Bounty, which sank off the coast of North Carolina after it was caught in Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Claudene Christian, 42, was pulled from the water unresponsive and transported to Elizabeth City Hospital, the Coast Guard said. She was later pronounced dead. Crews continue searching for the remaining missing person, identified as the ill-fated ship's captain, Robin Walbridge, 63.
Earlier Monday, two Coast Guard helicopters rescued 14 people from life rafts after they were forced to abandon ship.
Coast Guard rescue pilot Lt. Jenny Fields told NBC News that the rescue operation was a "challenging hoist" but that she was lucky to have a "skillful crew" on her Jayhawk helicopter.
Fields said those rescued appeared in "good spirits" and were "happy to be able to relax."
Hurricane Sandy sunk a tall ship off the coast of Hatteras, N.C. The Coast Guard was able to rescue 14 people but two remain missing. Watch raw video of the rescue.
'It was huge out there'
Coast Guard rescue swimmer Randy Haba helped pluck several crew members off a 25-foot rubber life raft. He was also lowered to a crew member floating in the water alone. He wrapped a strap around his body, and raised him to the chopper.
"It's one of the biggest seas I've ever been in. It was huge out there," Haba told The Associated Press.
The two crew members who went missing were wearing survival suits designed to help keep them afloat and protected from cold waters for up to 15 hours.
The 180-foot, three-mast ship issued a distress signal late Sunday after taking on water, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a release.
The director of the HMS Bounty Organization, Tracie Simonin, said the ship -- which was built for the 1962 Marlon Brando movie, "Mutiny on the Bounty" -- had left Connecticut last week en route for St. Petersburg, Fla.
"They were staying in constant contact with the National Hurricane Center," she said. "They were trying to make it around the storm."
After receiving the distress signal, the Coast Guard sent out an aircraft to speak with the crew, which reported that the vessel was taking on water and had no propulsion.
The rescue took place in winds of 40 mph and 18-foot seas about 90 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C.
Jeff Haynes / AFP - Getty Images, file
The HMS Bounty, a replica used in the Marlon Brando movie "Mutiny on the Bounty," sails past the Chicago skyline in this image from July 2003.
Those rescued were taken to Elizabeth City, N.C. None had life-threatening injuries. The Coast Guard identified them as: Daniel Cleveland, 25; John Svendsen, 41; Matthew Sanders, 37; Adam Prokosh, 27; Douglas Faunt, 66; John Jones, 29; Drew Salapatek, 29; Joshua Scornavacchi, 25; Anna Sprague, 20; Mark Warner, 33; Christopher Barksdale, 56; Laura Groves, 28; Jessica Hewitt, 25; and Jessica Black, 34.
The vessel reportedly sank, but the mast was still visible, the Coast Guard said.
Anxious family members
Mary Ellen Sprague said she talked to her daughter, Anna Sprague, after the rescue. She said her daughter had been aboard the HMS Bounty since May. The ship was going to spend the winter in Galveston, Texas.
Sandy strengthens as it bears down on eastern US
"She was probably the youngest member of the crew," Mary Ellen Sprague told the AP.
She said she had not learned many details yet because her daughter, normally talkative and outgoing, was being uncharacteristically quiet.
Glimpse into maritime history
The Bounty makes frequent trips around the country, offering a glimpse into maritime history, according to the ship's website, which appeared to be down Monday. It was originally a British transport vessel, and the replica has appeared in several films, including the 2006 movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," with Johnny Depp. Its last stop before its winter hiatus in Galveston, Texas, was to be in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Nov. 10.
BreakingNews.com's coverage of Hurricane Sandy
It is unclear why the boat set out to sea with Sandy bearing down. Sandy could be the largest storm ever to hit the United States, according to NOAA's website.
The Associated Press and NBC News' Rachel Elbaum and Jim Miklaszewski contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
replica or not i hope she don't go down. why she was there is questionable. its tradition to set sail for larger vessels but knowing this was coming and setting course for any area where she would even possibly come within striking distance of a hurricane is ludicrous.
good luck crew ( this is where the " Iron Men" part comes in ) hope you trained well.
gm Tramp,
Given the weather, I'd say the "Wooden Ships" part plays a bigger role.
There is no excuse for this ship being positioned right in the path of Hurricane Sandy.
It does if you want it to sink.
with the update she now salvage material. if i lived there i would be out there as soon as i could. within reason of course. you can bet you butt lots of people are thinking the same.
in case some of you don't know THAT is why a captain goes down with his ship. the movies love to make it about valour. bottom line...not so much so.
gm bill, gotta split soon time for the G.F.'s 100,000 mile check up. keep em honest today..........:)
Just a publicity stunt to feed some over the top new dumb TV series.
A square rigger taking on water and with no propulsion is toast in a storm like Sandy. I'm glad the crew got off in time. Pity for the ship... she was a very pretty gal...
She lost propulsion? As a sailing ship in 40knot winds, you'd she should just scoot right along! Did the crew forget how to set sail?
GM Neg
she was taking on water, no propulsion probably also meant no pumps
In 1964, the HMS Bounty replica was docked in Philadelphia, PA and I had an opportunity to tour it. Wonder if this is a re-enactment of the personnel leaving in lifeboats like Captain Bligh did in the 1962 movie with Marlon Brando! (sarcasm) however, glad to hear the crew is being hoisted up into the helicopter - Thank you Coast Guard!
GM, IA!
They might have lost most sails and rigging in the storm - that would not surprise me one bit. Sailing in 40 knots wind in a square rigger is definitely a hair raising experience for both the crew and the captain. Try climbing up the rigging to shorten the sails in a weather like that. They have no roller furling on those ships.
The questions I have are first, Why the hell were they there in the first place? It isn't as if a hurricane can sneak up on someone. This thing has been in the news for 10 days now, only moving at 15 MPH, and is 800 Miles across for Christ sake! You'd think somebody would have seen this coming and put into port.
Next, why are they sailing around the corner of the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" in this kind of weather. There is a reason the coastal area that includes Diamond Shoals, Frying Pan Shoals and stretches from Nags Head to Bald Head Island has that name. Hell, even Navy Destroyers know better than that.
I wonder if the ship is losing money financially, and in need of some repairs.With all the advance notice of Sandy arriving, there was plenty of notice given for ths ship to be put into port or even sent somewhere safer. The cost of salvaging it for repairs I imagine is going to be quite high.However, to lose it completely would be such a shame considering the historical value and rarity to have these ships evaluable to teach history and appreciation for how far we have come.
I had the chance to visit on board the Golden Hinde nearly 30 years ago.A reconstruction of the Tudor warship in which Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world in 1577 – 1580. It is quite incredible to see how these ships are made and taken care of. It too was used for traveling and educating people. I just couldn't get over how small sleeping quarters, entryways,even the captain's quarters and bed was. Really, folks were much, much shorter back then.
It is hard to believe they could be that stupid to take this wooden "raft" out into a hurricane. I bet this was losing money and now the insurance check will be coming once it sinks.
There are millions of people up and down the east coast who are facing the real danger of loss of life and property... and there are thousands of people making preperations to do something stupid... I'm not sure if there is one, but I hope these people are charged with a crime for endangering the lives of these rescue crews and for diverting resources from people who may actually deserve to be saved
Glad to hear the crew made it off, so the question remains........ why were they there? Insurance, perhaps????
The only thing more stupid than being caught off Hatteras in this storm is the commentary in this thread, especially that of the originator.
Stupid is as stupid does..they better be billed for the rescue.
It would certainly have made great advertising if they had made through to St.Petersburg, wouldn't it?
So sorry for the loss of life there of the two crew members. Sorry for the loss of the ship, too.
Iron men and wooden ships. They should not have been there without training in heavy weather ship rigging. Tell Davey Jones I said hello!
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest--
...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
how in the world did they think they were going to "go around" a 900+ mile wide storm?
How stupid can people get?
Hmmm, a hurricane is coming through. Let's go sailing on a tall masted ship! It will be fun! Duhhhh.
Give the crew and passengers all Darwin Award runner-ups.
The company or individual that owns that ship should pay every penny for that rescue for his incompetence.
Front-runner for the Darwin Award for the schmuck(s) who with weeks with anticipation of this storm decided on this sailing! ... it is ALWAYS safer to be in-harbor. Even with much storm-damage you can at least salvage.
Totally inexcusable!
@Chris, Thanks for pointing out the inadvisable location in which this vessel found itself. As a Coast Guard vet who has been on a number of SAR cases, I've always been mystified by the number of people who for some reason couldn't show the brainpower not to be somewhere dangerous when the vigoro hit the mix-master. If this vessel was taking on 2 feet of water per hour, it had no business in that area even in good weather conditions. The lack of auxiliary power does not speak well regarding the level of common sense displayed by the ship's owner and the ship's captain.
To the helo crews on this mission...Bravo Zulu
My condolences to the families for the loss of your loved ones.
My son is in the CG. This ship was reckless for putting to sea in a storm of this magnitude. Right now there is at least one helo crew flying around out there looking for 2 souls. Their lives are now endanger for the irresponsible actions of another. This is ridiculous. I'm sorry lives are probably lost but let's not compound it by losing Coast Guardsman as well.
Bravo Zulu to the flight crews. Come home safe Coasties.
"When the Captain ordered them to go out into the storm, I'm surprised they didn't MUTINY."
I know it is in incredibly bad taste but the joke was just way too easy....
The Bounty has sunk !!
These guys were really stupid for taking the ship out in a hurricane.
They were trying to "beat the storm". Really bad idea.
.
Sad, very sad. It was a beautiful ship and It's sad that two crew members are missing.
Awesome looking ship. A shame to see it destroyed.
The conventional wisdom for ships the size of Bounty is to go out into the open sea to ride out the hurricane there instead of the normal harbor, as the big waves close to shore are more likely to destroy such a ship. But maybe they waited too long or the storm was too big and pushed them towards the Graveyard of Atlantic. Square riggers have hard time fighting the wind - they mostly do downwind or at best 90 degrees to the wind. That is why so many sailing ships were lost in bad weather in past centuries. Sailing them in bad weather is very, very risky, and if you are not doing it all the time (crew and captain experience), it is borderline suicidal.
Reckless endangerment and manslaughter charges are in order for the person or persons - whether the owners, trustees, ... whoever - whose decision, without any obvious justification for going out to sea, may have led to the death of crew members; or God forbid others.
Max,
Yes that is correct, ships which can put to sea. They biggest issue with remaining in port is broken mooring lines or capsized in moorings. If the crew is onboard there is almost no hope of survival. A ship adrift, broken away from mooring lines can become a 1500ton being pushed by wind tide and current. The open sea offers the captain and crew the space to avoid other vessels and keep pointed into the wind and wave surges, as the ship was designed to do.
Regarding taking on water, Why to you all assume a hull defect or breach. The ship was in high seas, hig wave surges, which could break over the the rails of the ship. Any weakness in a hatch or porthole will allow water to enter; as long as this water can quickly go to the bilge, it can be pumped out as long as power (or manual pumps) is available. But in extreme situations, the water infiltration can be greater than pump capacity to remove it. The more water within the hull, the faster more water will flood in as the ship will sit lower in the water and become harder to control. Once the ship loses this battle, it is doomed. Leaking hatch covers are now seen as the primary cause of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
And if sailing LAST WEEK from Connecticutt was such a poor idea, why did the United States Navy order its ships to sea over the weekend? And, it very nearly made it past the storm having almost past Cape Hatteras.
What misfortune will befall us next?
LATTER-DAYS USA
Thanksgiving, without Bounty...
Mitt Romney POTUS
Good points, Bill. If they made it safe out of the storm, the crew an captain would have been acclaimed as great heroes. But they failed and people call them zeros... I will drink to the memory of those lost at sea, and to good health of those rescued... they experienced the Sea at it's greatest fury... Prost!
Jupiter3 - Oh , yes Romney will save us ... and monkeys might fly out of my butt !
@ Mark - If Obama saves us, monkeys will fly out your butt....
Captain Bly, noooooo!
'Questionable' actions isn't the word: IMO, everything stated about this so far smells a bit like an insurance scam....
She's already taking on water in 18 footers and now has no one aboard to clean up the mess - they have abandoned ship. It will be a miracle if she still swims after Sandy passes. What a shame (or possibly 'sham'), but if the waves intensify where she's at, I'll wager she won't be long for the topside of the sea.
I thought the same thing. Or possibly a publicity stunt? I hope not.
The 1045 update on 10/29 indicated that Bounty had sunk off Cape Hatteras. If she was taking on water at a rate of 2 feet per hour, that sounds as though something was amiss structurally before she even set sail from CT.
***Robocop Face*** We can rebuild her... we have the technology!!
Not sure why this boat was there, but what is even so much worse is that there was a Norweigan cruise ship that left yesterday at 4 pm EDT from New York headed to Bermuda. Why???? The waves were already 20 ft plus out in the Atlantic, and if you check some of the buoy information they don't even work. Anyone can check the buoy data with internet connection along the Atlantic seaboard. Why would a cruise liner with a few thousand people even leave in that direction is beyond me. And no I am not making this up, there is a Norweigan ship every Sunday at 4 pm that leaves for Bermuda and you can check the Norweigan website. The first two days are at sea before reaching Bermuda. I really hope that I don't read something on one of these news sites later today about this ship in distress because people do have choices and to go on any boat no matter what the size in this type of a storm this large is just insane and lacks common sense.
That is crazy, it is beyond my comprehension why any ship would be out there right now.
Les-1933113,
It is common for larger ships to leave port in advance of big storms. The Navy does it every time, as the ships are better off in heavy seas than they are tied up at the pier when the storm surge hits.
Having sailed these waters myself, given the fact that Sandy was so large and one could not just easily pass to the leeward side of the storm (i.e., with the winds so in this case, the Southern track) because it was travelling directly up the coast, it seems the more prudent option would have been to put in farther inland up a river in a more protected harbor, especially for a sailing ship such as this.
After all, a ship sunk tied up to a port is much more likely to be able to be raised, salvaged, and repaired to be put back into service than a ship lost in the open ocean which may be lost forever.
If they could have gone North and made it into the Chesapeake at least or South towards Georgia and some of the rivers there behind the barrier islands instead of going out to sea, there are a lot of ports that would have worked.
Sing Biker:
Yes - and they all left LAST week.... even the US Navy had moved on.
@JRS, your point is well taken and would have been the most prudent option for a vessel of this type. That's just what the fishing fleet in Gloucester has been doing for the last 2 days, even the larger fishing vessels which are much more seaworthy than Bounty.
Alex the Blade,
Actually the fleet was ordered out on Friday, to have sailed no later the Saturday, Norfolk, Philadelphia and northward. It was actually on tv.
What a shame....! The article didn't mention who the owner was, just that he lost communciation with the ship. It had a crew of 17, but no passengers... was it out in such bad weather for training purposes? The story doesn't seem complete!
Who was the crew member that played 1st Lt. Christian Fletcher's position (Marlon Brando in movie), or who played Captain Bly?
This storm has been out there a while, why were they out in the first place? Why this course? I hope the Coast Guard is able to get them out safely. People who don't evacuate or go out on the seas with looming storms put our Coast Guards lives and their own in danger when they don't heed warnings. Sometimes people wait too late to evacuate and get stuck. If you are in this storms way - please leave!
Really? Does the captain of this boat not watch the weather channel? Maybe he should put the App on his phone.
lol !!
I rechristen thee the HMS Dumb Dumb with captain dumb ass at the helm.
Dumb Dumb and captain dumb ass is correct. You cannot fix stupid.
They just finished some work on her at a shipyard in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
so she was in a safe harbour? why she set sail? or was she there awhile back?
Reading the Bounty.org website, the stats indicate her to be a wood hull and if she were hauled during the yard time in Boothbay would have experienced some opening of the seams. This might explain the information in the article that Bounty was taking on water at a rate of 2 feet per hour. Structural damage with a wooden hull of this size in hostile weather conditions is a given more that a perhaps.
Scooter...check out TallshipBounty.org, they had a schedule to keep and according to the information on the page expected to sail east and then head south with their ultimate destination of St. Petersburg. Stats on the page indicate that she was averaging 6.8 kts, which would have meant she would have been making about 175 miles per day. St. Pete might as well have been the moon at that rate. I'm with you on this as it would have been more prudent to head upriver someplace off the Chesepeake and tie off to everything that didn't move.
She had been in the yard at Boothbay from 10/1 to 10/20, hardly enough time for the hull to soak out if she had been hauled.
This is really at the heart of what has gone so wrong with the usa, these "sailors" are crewing a SAILING SHIP!!! When the weather got bad, they jumped off, in modern life boats no less. What ever happened to gritting your teeth and charging thru. I was a sailor, in the us navy, have been thru more than one storm, i question those who would call themself a sailor, and then get scared of a little wind and waves. Yes when i became a sailor i was terrified of the ocean, but im not anymore. I learned that the ocean can't hurt you if you don't let it. If i ever meet any of these 17 people from this ship, i won't be very nice.................. Fakes, posers, charletans, despicable clowns. I would have turned the bow into the wind, to minimize wallowing, stowed mainsail, rigged storm sail if practical, and rode out the worst of it, plus the term batten down the hatches, most people don't know what that means.
A REAL SAILOR.
Million laughs, opto. :-/
opto125,
I, too, served in the U.S. Navy and sailed through some extreme storms. I would not fault these folks too much, though. Square Riggers are not very maneuverable in hurricanes to start with. The article mentions that they were without power, and were taking on water, when the crew left in their life boats. This ship does have an engine for propulsion, but if it is out of commission they didn't have much choice.
OPTO
Bird-farm sailor i bet, bit larger then this WOODEN vessel with no real working propulsion. back when these things ruled the seas the sailors who served ( voluntarily or not) didn't have a hell of allot of choice, it was more along the lines of " ride it out or die". let alone the advantage of even remotely accurate weather reports.
as for your being a "real sailor" that too is quite qestionable. ..if you were you would never wish harm to her crew. period.
ex-USN
Opto - The only problem with your "Real Sailor" spew is that this is a replica ship which relies on a generator to operate the bilge pumps and it doesn't have a manual pump like Columbus did on his Mayflower. So when their engines fail, so does their bilge pump and that equals disaster. Eventually it will take on enough water and a broadside wave will topple the ship over. The captain made the responsible decision.
You lost me. Now my guts hurt from laughing so hard.
Say What,
Errr, that was Columbus on the Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria! The Pilgrims on the Mayflower went to Plymouth Rock, MA - just keeping historical references accurate, lol - Good Call Elk Meadow!
opto125
And I'm sure you don't use VHF, Radar, GPS, EPIRPs, etc. I'm sure your sails are made from canvas, you splice and tie all your own rigging, you probably use a sextant to navigate...you know, like a real sailor. Right?
What (where) is ones' mental compass?
A mate of mine said that she may have been waiting for a safe slip - but those were all taken a week ago. If that's true, she's sailed way too late.
Opto125: that's one of the strangest things I've ever heard a 'sailor' say ("I learned that the ocean can't hurt you if you don't let it.") She's a fickle love, mate: lots of sailors have met their demise by your way of thinking. I learned early on that you can never under-estimate her or believe that you hold all of the cards - not through any amount of bravado. I don't know what you've 'sailed' but I'm not there and do not know what kinds of winds she's experiencing, but I do know as a square-rigger she may not be able to deploy (even storm sails) or the wind will take those to her sides. That might work in just wind, but Squares tend to jut out farther over the sides and 18 foot waves would definately catch those and pull her on over. As far as bowing the wind - that really depends on where the waves are coming from: you're assuming its the same angle as the wind. Again, I don't know what you've been sailing (possibly a surf board?) but you're bow has meet the waved or you'll swamp for certain.
---- ----
To those lost at sea keeping the traditions of sail alive: take good care of the Bounty rendition and keep her company in her final moments, and those thereafter.
I wonder if the had a sea anchor on board. In weather too bad for sails they used to throw out the sea anchor to keep them pointed into the waves. And it is too bad that a replica ship does not have manual pumps like the original.
What do they need bilge pumps for? They have the Coast Guard to protect them. The Coast Guard has H-60 Jayhawks. They can fly through hurricanes and nor'easters like they aren't there, until they go to hover. Then the pilot has to actually work.
I say screw bilge pumps! Bilge pumps are obsolete! What the H-60's cant reach, the C-130's can. They can go all the way across the Atlantic and drop stuff til a ship arrives. I'm suprised the bilge pump companies haven't gone out of business since the development of Coast Guard aviation.
@miklkit, a sea anchor would be hazardous to deploy on a 180' sailing vessel. The proper method, and one which the Coast Guard used on ocean station duties is to 'sail' downwind as this allows the vessel to surf the waves rather than beat into them. All that 'Victory at Sea' bs is just that, if there's no justifiable reason to head into weather...DON'T. For information on what this is all about one can 'Google' CGC Tamaroa, which was the floating unit which went out in the 'Perfect Storm' to assist a vessel in need.
Having served on units which were deployed on Ocean Station duty in the North Atlantic, there's nothing more unnerving than hearing "All hands stand by for heavy rolls, the ship is coming about". During one 48 hour period on OS 'Bravo', the CGC Duane experienced multiple rolls which hit 38 degrees on the ship's inclinometer.
IA.ScooterTramp,
Thank you for calling out Opto on his nautical background. My recollection is that the only sailing ships in acrive US military service are the USS Constitution, the Anapolis training four-master and the Coast Guard training brig. The training ships are for training midshipmen officer candidates, with limited crews of regular sailors with years of sailing experience to train them and fix what they break.
The last I heard the USS Constitution is towed from its berth on a year, turned about, and reberthed to equalize weathering. She last "sailed" under tow to dry dock in the early seventies for a complete overhaul before the Bicentennial celebration, where she was towed around Boston Harbor and returned to her berth.
Say What - Say what ?! Columbus' ships (plural ) were the Nina , Pinta , and Santa Maria . The Mayflower was the Pilgrims ship .
The stupidity of the average human being once again shows itself. What the heck were they even doing out there in the first place!
I am sailing south right now. On the intracoastal of course. I layed up for four days in Beaufort. Leaving today the wind is still blowing hard at 15 to 20. Out at sea is impossible. Off cape fear the waves are 20 to 30 feet high. Not sure how the Captain got in that situation but the BOUNTY may not survive this one. With no engine and no crew the wind which is out of the wnw will pound her up. This area is no joke and there are literally thousands of ships at the bottom as proof. God have mercy on the BOUNTY and her crew. I am nervous about my run today so keeping this leg short.
Stay safe. The looting and plundering can wait.
pirateman - fair winds and following seas
From last night's newscast, they said all ships would be better out to sea than being battered in port from the waves. They'd break apart from them hitting the docks.
True bigskygal, but they knew the storm was comming a long time ago. Why not leave earlier?
The HMS Bounty has all the proper equipment to keep it a float in storms including many pumps on the ship. This ship was made to tolerate high seas and winds up to a 100 MPH. They should have NEVER abandoned the ship. All the tech equipment needs people to run it. If the ship goes down they should be charged with a crime.
insurance fraud comes to mind.........
The ship may have been made to withstand such extremes, but the idiot crew who got her into this mess certainly were not.
Insurance Fraud. The ship should have been moved no more then 2 miles offshore. To move it 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C. they definitively want this ship never to be found. INSURANCE FRAUD.
Ray,
Were you THERE? How do you know what the wind strength was? What the sea height was?
This is a replica ship, sailed by a mix of older, professionals and young newbies who sign for a period for both the training and the experience. Most of these ships make their "living" from fees to the newbies and donations for display at ports of call. The Bounty was actually twice as long as the original, which made it suitable for excursion cruising and as a movie set piece. But, like other replica ships, its cheif mission was to educate and preserve the history of sail exploration. Currently, somewhat smaller replicas of the Nina and the Pinta are working the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, built in Brazil by same methods as used in the 15th century. These litle ships, not much more than boats actually, were sailed from Brazil to the US and have sailed the Caribbean, the SE coast, the Gulf Coast and major rivers.
Although the Bounty was for sale, it was scheduled for fall, winter and summer 2013 appearances.
Ray, I was onboard this ship this past July while it visited Newburyport, Ma. I also saw it getting some re-fit a couple years ago while in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. The HMS Bounty is no modern ship, believe me, it needs constant upkeep, just to keep her afloat. I was below deck, toured the entire ship. It is a relic. It was also for sale because of the cost to operate and maintain. Its not the kind of ship that should be heading directly into a hurricane. Whoever said that "a ship is safer at sea, than it is at port" is not familiar with this ship. They could have easily made port over the weekend, whoever made the decision to keep on a southbound heading, into Sandy, was a fool. Thank God more did not die!
I know this ship, I have been aboard many times, and believe me, it was somewhere where it should not have ever been. A thousand mile wide storm, is not easy to skirt, even in a modern ship with much better propulsion. This ship should have been docked by Saturday...
Life is tough. It is tougher if you are stupid.
"It is unclear why the boat set out to sea with Sandy bearing down."
It's always unclear, when they don't want you to know. Well, FIND OUT why they set sail during a hurricane, and let us know.
What kind of buffoons were operating that ship knowing that the worst storm was predicted ever to hit the USA?
Did the Captain stay aboard -as in days of old,
Or wasn't that guy as big and bold?
gee i dunno MJ , but heres a idea you might try.... read the article instead of just the headline and find out...............
Worst storm? Not by a long ways.
It's sad to think that this degree of ignorance doesn't preclude one from voting. :-(
Which storm was worse Darthdon?
My guess is they wanted the ship out of harms way, worrying it wouldn't withstand the hurricane while docked. They probably didn't leave earlier as the forecast became worse as the storm moved closer. Bad decision, but probably not as straight forward as we think it should have been with current information.
So I suppose all you corn-row sailors will think that US Navy brass are all idiots for ordering all ships in port from Norfolk and points north to sea on Friday. Especially if we lose a destroyer. Of course, they could have left them in port to be battered to pieces by the docks or by other ships (broken loose from their mooring).
Interestingly, CNN found a Connecticutt Lobersterman at the docks, checking and adding additional lines to his boat. His greatest concern was his or another boat breaking loose and colliding. At the height of the swells and winds, this smaller boats are tossed around like paper wads. As he was leaving, he mentioned a boat across the water, "That boat's $200 000, that's all that man ha in the world. It's his business and his income." Then as he turned away he looked at his boat, as if seeing for the last time, and said he wouldn't be sleeping tonight. Yep, hurricanes are great insance frauds.
By the way, a combination of storm surges and high tides are expected to push surges up coastal rivers for miles. Trying to harbor in a river might have left it grounded miles up a river or smashed into a dam or bridge.
Most ships of this size and larger have a better chance at sea of not being wrecked by a tsunami or storm surge, but what probably happened is the ship's backup power or main mast failed leaving it floating at sea at the mercy of the waves. In fact if a ship could stay in the eye of a hurricane until it loses its strength is would be calm sailing if the hurricane didn't make landfall. If the HMS Bounty replica survives, even sunken in waters not too deep, it may come out ahead of being crushed against the dock or tossed onto land during the peak waves of storm surge. What is surprising is there was willing crew ready to take it to sea, unless it was just between cities by chance.
Anyone at the helm under such known weather conditions MUST be in it for the notoriaty, insurance with total disregard for life - and limb. Beautiful boat in a bad storm; very sad story really. Even land lovers know what this land lubber did not know - do not go out in this weather alone or otherwise. Captain/master must have had altering substance in his/her system.
I hope the insurers check out the owner real good - sounds like a scam to collect on the ship.
Land lovers know what this land lubber should know. Captain/master must have had altering substance in his/her veins. No compass needed for one to know not to go in this direction when weather is adverse - whether alone or otherwise. I have every reason to believe notoriaty or insurance no matter what else surfaces.
aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggg me hearties methinks we had too much grog last night, hey where did these waves come from?
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This is absolutely ridiculous. There are currently 5 cruise ships in the area of the storm. Last night, from a report on the news, showed a ship leaving port....I was thinking what the heck is going on here? They have all had due time of notice NOT to be in the eye of the storm. But they are out there. The people that had these trips planned should have demanded that the cruise be postponed or give the people a refund. There is no excuse for being out there. Period.
Idiots!! This is a scam for sure! Not a good one though, with the rescue incomplete and the brave crews that are going to their aid and risking their lives.
On a lighter view there is a lot of twisted history here; Pilgrims with Mayflower, Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria for the man from Genova!
God Bless All
Mutiny on the Bounty!