Panel probes why tall ship HMS Bounty sunk during Superstorm Sandy

2/12/2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The HMS Bounty, a 180-foot sailboat, sunk in the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Sandy approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C., Monday, Oct. 29.
The HMS Bounty, a 180-foot sailboat, sunk in the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Sandy approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C., Monday, Oct. 29.

PORTSMOUTH, Va.  — Surviving crew members will testify as a federal safety panel meets in Virginia to examine what led to the sinking of a replica 18th-century sailing ship during Hurricane Sandy.

Investigators with the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board begin hearing testimony today in Portsmouth, Va.

One member of the HMS Bounty's crew died and the captain was never found after the ship sank 90 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C., during the October storm.

The safety panel has scheduled testimony from the 14 surviving crew members, representatives of the shipyard where the Bounty underwent repairs weeks before sinking, and captains of similar ships that stayed in port during Sandy.

The ship was built for the 1962 film “Mutiny on the Bounty” and appeared in other seafaring dramas.