The US Coast Guard has rescued 14 of the 16 crew members who abandoned the replica tall ship HMS Bounty while in the path of Hurricane Sandy off North Carolina, using helicopters to pluck them from life rafts, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard continued to search for the two missing crew members including the captain who abandoned ship about 145km southeast of Hatteras, North Carolina when the vessel was in rough seas about 260km from the storm's eye.
The three-mast, 180-foot (55m) ship, built for the 1962 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty," was lost.
"It is under water. The mast of the ship is still protruding from the water," Coast Guard spokesman Chief Nyx Cangemi said, relaying eyewitness reports from the search and rescue team.
As the 16 crew members were abandoning the Bounty wearing cold-water survival suits and life jackets, the final three on board were washed overboard, Cangemi said. One of them was pulled onto a life raft but the other two remained at sea, he said.
The 14 were rescued from two 25-person lifeboats with canopies, the Coast Guard said.
Crews aboard a C-130 Hercules airplane and a third rescue helicopter were searching for the two missing crew members, and a two Coast Guard cutters were on the way to assist them, Cangemi said.
Captain Robin Walbridge, 63, who worked on the Bounty for 17 years, was one of the missing, said his wife, Claudia McCann.
"That was his passion," McCann said. "He's the best captain in the industry. ... There's not too many captains that can sail that kind of ship (a square-rigger)."
The captain was the last to leave the ship, wearing red survival gear, she said.
"That's the image I have in my head. I'm sure he made sure his crew were all tucked in their life boats before he got off the ship," McCann said.
The first of two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters arrived on the scene at about 6:30am (local time) and hoisted five people to safety, and a second helicopter arrived and rescued nine people, the Coast Guard said.
The ship was on its way from New London, Connecticut, to St. Petersburg, Florida, said Tracie Simonin, director of the HMS Bounty Organization LLC. She said she was unsure how the captain attempted to navigate the storm.
The vessel was believed to be taking on water and was without propulsion, stuck in 65kmh winds and 5.5m seas, the Coast Guard said.
The original Bounty, a British transport vessel, gained infamy for a mutiny in Tahiti in 1789.
The 1962 movie starred Marlon Brando as lead mutineer Fletcher Christian. The replica Bounty has appeared in numerous documentaries and feature films including "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" with Johnny Depp, according to the ship's website.
