Posted on 10/30/2012 3:33:39 PM PDT by jwsea55
The Coast Guard rescued 14 people from life rafts in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C., Monday, Oct. 29, and two people remain missing. The first MH-60 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 and all were taken to Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., with no life-threatening conditions. U.S. Coast Guard video by Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C.
This storm was known for over a week. What in God’s name was a replica of a 18th century ship doing out in open waters with a hurricane coming? I would have mutinied.
There is absolutely no excuse for that ship to have been in those Sea’s.
Don't really have a comment on taking the boat out.
I was just thinking even if this ship had a steel hull, modern bulkheads, top of the line pumps, and an engine and modern navigation equipment it would still be suicidial to take on a cat 1 hurricane.
The Edmund Fitzgerald a 700 foot plus modern ore carrier sunk in a weaker storm, and ironically right around the same time of the year.
No “life threatening conditions”? Elsewhere, I read that one of those rescued - a young woman - had died. Is that incorrect?
Most leave port if they are able and run away from the storm, at a right angle to its path. I'd guess that is what HMS Bounty was trying to do, but didn't leave soon enough, didn't run as fast as they predicted, or conditions even on the edges of the storm exceeded expectations.
Yes. Read below.
Life threatening has what meaning...when hypothermia is possible.
A woman rescued in the Atlantic from a tall ship caught in Hurricane Sandy has died, the Coast Guard reports.
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — The Coast Guard says a woman who was rescued in the Atlantic after abandoning ship in rough weather churned up by Hurricane Sandy has died.
Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class David Weydert says 42-year-old Claudene Christian was unresponsive when she was pulled from the water Monday evening and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Fourteen other crew members were rescued from the HMS Bounty, a replica 18th-century sailing vessel that was originally built for the 1962 film "Mutiny on the Bounty" and was featured in several other films over the years.
The Coast Guard is still searching for the ship's captain.
The final hours of the HMS Bounty were as dramatic as the Hollywood adventure films she starred in, with the crew abandoning ship in life rafts as their stately craft slowly went down in the immense waves churned up by Hurricane Sandy off the North Carolina coast.
By the time the first rescue helicopter arrived, all that was visible of the replica 18th-century sailing vessel was a strobe light atop the mighty ship's submerged masts. The roiling Atlantic Ocean had claimed the rest.
If it had sunk next to a pier it could be salvaged and repaired.
Maybe they should have sailed to England instead of right into a storm that was 1,000 miles wide.
This ship wasn’t all that large to begin with, The original Bounty was only 90 foot long, I assume this ship was the same size..She was topheavy with masts and rigging, she was wood. No way would you catch me in a 90 foot long wooden boat in a hurricane.
Now, if you lose a hatch and take on water... Or the seas build to the point they steepen and do start breaking, or wind or land force you to an unfavorable heading...then you've got a real problem.
Sure, 90 ft isn't big by current ocean going standards... But remember, La Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria were each not much over 50 ft in length. Thousands of wooden ships around the size of HMS Bounty have weathered thousands of storms through the years. Sure, many sank, most didn't. I'd have taken those odds, I'd have crewed HMS Bounty.
That's why its called "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" ... claims another victim...
When I first heard of this situation, the news person said that it was too rough for the Coast Guard to respond. I thought at the time this person didn’t serve in the same Coast Guard I proudly served for over 26 years. Sure enough, the next day I read about the rescue. Made me proud.
This is a report that I received today. Two former students from the college I teach at were on the Bounty.
Both survived.
The liferaft was launched-to avoid punctures from the sharp objects on the hull, it was put in the water and the crew jumped into the water and then quickly got into the raft.
The captain was the last to leave and helped the final crew member get into the raft-this final crew member did not survive. The captain did not make it to the raft. One of my colleagues was a good friend of the captain’s. May the souls of the captain and crew member who perished rest in peace.
Maine Mariner
Any relation to Fletcher?
You might have been rescued, you might have gone to the bottom.
It didn’t work out so well for them.
The Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria did not have to weather a hurricane.Yes thousands of ship did weather the storms, and the treasure hunters are still diving on hundreds that didn’t.
Me I will take the shore, and tie that bad boy to the dock, rather than take a chance in a wooden boat in a hurricane.
Any relation to Fletcher?
A direct descendant it has been reported
The former Coast Guarders I know pretty much went when it made no sense. To borrow the "enlarged" line from the movie The Guardian,
"Out of the 39 thousand men and women who make up the United States Coast Guard, there are only 280 rescue swimmers. This is because we are the Coast Guard's elite. We are the best of the best. When storms shut down entire ports, we go out. When hurricanes ground the United States Navy, we go out. And when the Holy Lord himself reaches down from heaven and destroys His good work with winds that rip houses off the ground, we go out."
I have a lot of respect for you guys...and it sounded like you got to have a bit of fun every once in awhile, too.
A direct descendant it has been reported
Thanks Robe.
Here's an article from the Christian Science Monitor:
HMS Bounty casualty claimed tie to mutinous Fletcher Christian
Claudene Christian perished in the tragic sinking Monday of a replica HMS Bounty, after the ship went down in hurricane Sandy-swept seas. She had claimed a a family tie to Fletcher Christian, chief mutineer on the original ship
When Claudene Christian applied earlier this year for a spot as a mate on the famous tall ship replica of the HMS Bounty, she probably had a little edge: Her family claimed a historical connection to the original ship via Fletcher Christian, who had instigated the 1789 mutiny that propelled the Bounty and its crew into maritime history and Hollywood fantasy.
In an almost inexplicable twist on that family legacy, Ms. Christian is so far the only confirmed casualty from the loss of the 1962 replica, which sank Monday off Cape Hatteras, N.C., in the high seas wrought by hurricane Sandy. The captain of the HMS Bounty, Robin Walbridge, remains missing, though the US Coast Guard has not given up the search.
Thanks!
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