Monday, October 29, 2012

Update: Famous Lunenburg-Built Vessel Sinks/2 Crew Missing

HMS Bounty
The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued 14 members of the crew forced to abandon the tall ship HMS Bounty caught in high seas created by Hurricane Sandy off the coast of North Carolina.
The Coast Guard is searching for two other crew members and has corrected the total number of crew to 16 from 17. The vessel itself has sunk. HMS Bounty was built in Lunenburg in 1960, before Bluenose Two, for use in the 1962 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty". It left Connecticut last week bound for Florida. The vessel was a frequent visitor to the port of Lunenburg over the years and Mayor Laurence Mawhinney says today's loss of the Bounty is a tragedy.



The crew had apparently been in constant contact with the National Hurricane Center before today's sinking and tried to go around the storm.