HMS Bounty deaths 'preventable'

If the management and the captain of the sunken tall ship HMS Bounty had "exercised the proper responsibility, judgment and prudence," the deaths of two people would have been prevented, according to a Coast Guard investigation report released Thursday, CNN reported. 

Nineteen months after the Bounty sank in Hurricane Sandy off North Carolina, and more than a year after investigative hearings, the Coast Guard issued a wide range of recommendations in the disaster that killed rookie deckhand Claudene Christian and left Capt. Robin Walbridge missing and presumed dead. Fourteen crew members survived.

Before it sank roughly 100 miles off Hatteras, the Bounty was arguably the most famous three-masted wooden square rigger in the world.

The Coast Guard investigation asked life-and-death questions about proper ship maintenance, the crew's experience and the captain's decision to sail from Connecticut to Florida as Sandy pointed toward the East Coast.

The report could determine who, if anyone, might lose maritime licenses as a result of the disaster. During the investigation, officials said the report's findings could be forwarded to prosecutors who would determine whether to file criminal charges.

The report said the "most critical" cause of the sinking was the "failure of the Bounty's management and [captain] to exercise effective oversight and risk management in the overall operation of the Bounty and specifically with undertaking its final voyage in the face of an impending hurricane."

The "leading cause that contributed to the loss" of Walbridge and to Christian's death was the captain's "decision to order the crew to abandon the ship much too late," the report said.

The decision to abandon ship so late after hurricane conditions worsened and the "fact that the crew had not drilled in months," led the report to determine that the captain's "actions/and or inactions in this regard constitutes negligence."

The report also said the ships' owner HMS Bounty Organization LLC, "committed acts of negligence that contributed to" Christian's death and the presumed death of Walbridge.

Fatigue played a contributing factor in the disaster, the report said. The "crew was suffering from fatigue which was born out of lack of sleep, being sea sick, and from the physical exertion of fighting to save the vessel while in extreme weather conditions for over 24 hours."