Survivors break silence about sinking of HMS Bounty in U.S. TV interview

Updated Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 5:52 p.m.

HALIFAX – The 14 surviving crew members of HMS Bounty have spoken out about their dramatic rescue one week ago, in stormy seas off North Carolina.

The Bounty went down Oct. 29, as Hurricane Sandy churned toward the U.S. East Coast, after taking on water for 24 hours.

The tall ship’s water pump and generator failed, leaving the ship floundering in 5.5-metre waves and 113 km/h winds.

Crew member Laura Groves told ABC News in an interview that aired on Good Morning America on Tuesday that it was like being in “a washing machine in an earthquake while going down giant slides.”

The crew abandoned ship and all but two of the 16 people on board were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The body of 42-year-old deckhand Claudene Christian was recovered later that day, about 13 kilometres away from the wreck site. Coast Guard officials said she was unresponsive and she was declared dead in an Elizabeth City, NC hospital.

Capt. Robin Walbridge was lost at sea. Coast Guard search efforts continued until Thursday evening, after 90 hours of searching by air and sea turned up no sign of the 63-year-old.

Walbridge was captain of the Bounty for about 20 years.

An obituary for the veteran sailor appeared in the  Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday. His wife of 14 years Claudia McCann said “He was the man he was because of what he did.”

She also told the Times Walbridge sent her a message that the ship was in trouble and the crew may have to abandon the vessel.

Walbridge, Christian were washed overboard, along with first mate John Svendsen.

Svendsen managed to swim to a “floating beacon.” He told ABC‘s Matt Guttman that it was the captain’s idea.

“I give my life to Robin and to his ingenuity, to his leadership that I’m here today,” Svendsen said in the interview.

Although the ship had been through this type of weather before and it was in good condition, the technical issues led to the ship’s demise. The crew told ABC it was a hard decision to say goodbye to the boat — built in Nova Scotia in 1960 for the film Mutiny on the Bounty — in order to save their lives.

Questions were raised last week about why Walbridge took the ship out to sea, knowing that it would have to go through hurricane Sandy, on its way from London, Conn. to St. Petersburg, Fla.

HMS Bounty Group spokesperson Tracey Simonin told Global News last week that Walbridge “always took the utmost precaution with the ship and the crew.”

She added encountering six-metre waves “is not an uncommon thing when you travel as far and wide as we do.”

The rescued crew members include:  Daniel Cleveland, 25; John Svendsen, 41; Matthew Sanders, 37; Adam Prokosh, 27; Douglas Faunt, 66; John Jones, 29; Drew Salapatek, 29; Joshua Scornavacchi, 25; Anna Sprague, 20; Mark Warner, 33; Christopher Barksdale, 56; Laura Groves, 28; Jessica Hewitt, 25; Jessica Black, 34.