Sandy Sinks Tall Ship, 14 Rescued and Two Missing {Bounty}

ABC News ^ | 29 Oct 2012 | KEVIN DOLAK

[shove_it]

Fourteen people were rescued this morning from a tall ship that was sunk by Hurricane Sandy, but a Coast Guard helicopter is scouring the churning seas for two crew members who are missing.

The HMS Bounty, a three masted ship, was 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C., when the owner called saying she'd lost contact with the crew Sunday night, The AP reported. The Bounty is a 180-foot replica of the ship featured in the film "Mutiny on the Bounty."

[Kenny Bunk]

Although ignorance of pertinent facts has rarely deterred me from making an official suitably be-ribboned report to my insurance companies, esteemed colleagues, and yachting confrères in the past, (as you probably all too well recall), I am taking this one too hard to authoritatively rule right now. Although I had never been aboard, I obsessively followed her creation and subsequent operations in the marine press for some years.

But, it's not the first time a sailing vessel has been caught on that particularly brutal lee shore. It's not the place to be close in, as the Bounty unfortunately demonstrated as she joins the thousands of her sisters who lie sunken in those waters. With 90 mph winds onshore, no auxiliary engine (I think I recall she had a 500Hp MTU) is going to allow a sailing vessel with that much tophamper to claw her way off Cape Hatteras to safer deep water.

I looked at this mess develop on NOAA Radar over the past few days as she moved in from SSE and cannot fathom why anyone would be on that heading, no matter where the heck they were going! So, let's wait for survivor reports to filter in on this one and pray the CG finds the Captain. We should also wait until Wooden Boat opines on the matter, as I think they reported on Bounty's recent overhaul!