According to CNN and others, two crewman are missing from a replica ship used in Mutiny on the Bounty, Treasure Island, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, after it was battered by Hurricane Sandy off the coast of North Carolina.
Two crew members are missing Monday amid 18-foot-tall waves and 40-mph winds after they and their team abandoned the three-masted HMS Bounty for two lifeboats, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.
Coast Guard helicopters plucked 14 people out of the chilly Atlantic Ocean around 6:30 a.m., Petty Officer Brandyn Hill said. But so far, there’s no word on the missing.
After fighting waves towering 18 feet high and winds of 40 mph, the 16 crew members fled the HMS Bounty, which appeared in some classic adventure films, hoping for rescue as soon as possible.
The Coast Guard was bringing all 14 people it saved to the Coast Guard air station in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, according to Hill.
A C-130 aircraft is still looking for the two missing crew members, and a third Jayhawk crew is en route to help the search-and-rescue effort, the Coast Guard said.
Initial reports said 17 crew members were aboard the HMS Bounty, but the Coast Guard corrected that number in its most recent statement.
Wearing special cold-weather survival suits, crew members abandoned ship Monday into lifeboats designed to hold 25 people. The boats also have canopies to help shelter them somewhat from Sandy’s pelting rain and winds.
The Coast Guard received an emergency call from the ship’s owner Sunday after the 80-foot, three-masted vessel lost power and started taking on water, the Coast Guard said. Rescuers picked up an emergency locator beacon from the vessel, and an HC-130 aircraft was dispatched to the area, where the plane made contact with the crew. [CNN]
In an interview on ABC about an hour ago, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Robert Parker said “We currently have either two or three people still unaccounted for and the vessel has completely sunk.”
Which obviously makes you wonder… what the f*ck were people doing on a pirate ship from a movie with a giant storm approaching? A giant storm we’ve been hearing about for a week. When I think of places I’d want to be when a storm hits, “on a sailboat from the 1700s” is pretty far down the list. That’s quite an oversight. I just hope they remembered to evacuate Tom Hanks’ raft from Castaway.