Yesterday, Hurricane Sandy sank a replica of the HMS Bounty with 16 crew members onboard. Of those 16, one is confirmed dead and the captain, Robin Walbridge, is missing.

One of the rescued crewmen was Doug Faunt N6TQS, a well-known DXpeditioner. Doug has taken part in recent T33 and VU4 activations, among others.

An 11:30-minutes video of the rescue operation can be seen in the video below. Doug is the man in yellow beginning at 11:00 minutes.

After reaching shore, Doug tweeted, “The ship sank beneath us, but we swam free and mostly got into two rafts. I’m at the USCG station Elizabeth City NC.”

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5 Responses to “HMS Bounty (replica) sinks with DXpeditioner onboard”

1. Jim W1PID says:

   October 30, 2012 at 5:31 pm

   Thanks John – Your posts always relevant and interesting. This one is remarkable. vy best, Jim W1PID

   Reply
2. K3TN says:

   October 31, 2012 at 5:00 am

   The full story has some lessons learned about hubris. The rescue team did a great job, but that ship should never have been out in that storm – bad decisions were made. The Washingon Post had a good article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/tall-ship-hms-bounty-sinks-off-nc-coast-two-still-missing/2012/10/29/d276daf8-21d8-11e2-8448-81b1ce7d6978_story.html

   Reply
3. John AE5X says:

   October 31, 2012 at 5:17 am

   Thanks for the comments. With the very ample notification of Sandy’s approach (and its magnitude), one can’t help but wonder what led to the decision to leave CT when they did – and headed in that direction.

   Reply
4. Mario, S56A, N1YU says:

   November 1, 2012 at 2:14 am

   Bounty captain obviously made a wrong decission and paid it dearly. I am glad OC Doug survived as he was regular there. We were together at K1B decade ago.

   Reply
5. John AE5X says:

   November 3, 2012 at 5:03 pm

   Seems the captain was also a ham – KD4OHZ.

   Reply