By John Connell

Last updated at 12:09, Tuesday, 30 October 2012

A ship with a special place in the hearts of west Cumbrians has capsized in Hurricane Sandy, claiming the lives of two people.

Sinking: A US Coast Guard photo of the HMS Bounty, submerged in the Atlantic during Hurricane Sandy yesterday. The Coast Guard rescued 14 of the 16 crew members. Inset: The Bounty during a visit to Maryport in 2007

The HMS Bounty, which visited Maryport in 2007, sank off North Carolina in 18ft seas.

The US Coast Guard rescued 14 of the 16 crew members who had been forced to abandon ship at 5am on Monday.

Claudene Christian, 42, was pulled from the water on Monday – hours after the historic ship went down in the storm – but was “unresponsive”.

The ship’s 63-year-old captain Robin Walbridge, who ordered his crew to abandon ship, is still missing.

The stricken vessel was about 160 miles from the eye of the storm.

The ship left Connecticut last week for Florida.

The crew had been in constant contact with the National Hurricane Centre and tried to go around the storm.

When the Bounty came to Maryport in August 2007, crowds of up to 45,000 people visited the tall ship.

The ship was adopted by west Cumbrians because of Cockermouth-born Fletcher Christian who led the Mutiny on the Bounty on April 28 1789.

At least two pubs are named after the HMS Bounty, one in Maryport and the other in Workington, and there is the Fletcher Christian Tavern in Cockermouth.

The ship is a replica of the one made famous in the 1960 film Mutiny on the Bounty.

It was also used in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

When the Bounty docked at Maryport, it is the ship’s first visit to England for almost 45 years.

It had arrived after a 3,800-mile journey from New York.

The HMS Bounty was a three-masted sailing ship built in the same way it would have been more than 200 years earlier. It was constructed from the original ship’s drawings, which are still on file in Admiralty archives.

The ship’s visit had been organised by Allerdale Council and urban regeneration company West Lakes Renaissance. It travelled around the UK coastline before setting off to recreate Captain Bligh’s famous journey to Tahiti.

First published at 11:39, Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk