The U.S. Coast Guard halted its search Thursday for the captain of a Canadian-built tall ship that sank off the North Carolina coast during hurricane Sandy after more than three days of around-the-clock effort. The Coast Guard for 90 hours searched for 63-year-old Robin Walbridge of St. Petersburg, Fla., using ships, helicopters, and large planes before suspending its efforts, said Lt. Michael Patterson. "Suspending a search and rescue case is one of the hardest decisions we have to make," said Capt. Doug Cameron, the chief of incident response for the Coast Guard 5th District.
The HMS Bounty was originally built at Smith and Ruhland Shipyard in Lunenburg, N.S. for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty starring Marlon Brando, and it was featured in several other films over the years, including one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Walbridge was captain of the three-masted tall ship, which sank before dawn Monday in hurricane-churned waters about 90 miles off Cape Hatteras.
The crew abandoned ship in two life rafts, and the Coast Guard rescued 14 crew members. Claudene Christian, 42, was among those rescued, but she died.