Community Corner
Mother Of HMS Bounty Crew Member Sues Ship Owner
Two died when tall ship sailing from New London went down during Hurricane Sandy
The mother of an HMS Bounty crew member who died when the ship sank during Hurricane Sandy has sued the ship's owner and the corporation that managed the vessel.
Claudene Christian, mother of 42-year-old crew member Claudene Christian, filed the suit in the New York Eastern District Court on Monday. She is suing Robert Hansen as well as the HMS Bounty Organization LLC.
According to the Virginian-Pilot, the lawsuit charges negligence by Hansen and the corporation in allowing the ship to sail from New London to St. Petersburg, Fla. as the storm made its way up the East Coast. The Bounty, a replica ship built for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty and featured in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, departed New London on Oct. 25 and sank four days later off the coast of North Carolina.
The ship rolled as the crew was preparing to evacuate, pitching people into the ocean. The Coast Guard rescued 14 crew members but Christian was later found unresponsive and later pronounced dead. The Bounty's captain, 63-year-old Robin Walbridge, was missing and presumed dead.
Referencing information that came out during a federal investigation into the sinking, the suit charges recklessness on the part of Walbridge and the ship's owners in allowing the Bounty to sail. It requests $90 million in damages.
An investigation by the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board took place in February. Witnesses called to testify included a shipyard worker who said rot had been found in the frame during an overhaul shortly before the ship sailed from New London, captains of other tall ships who decided to delay departures due to the storm, and a Coast Guard search and rescue coordinator who said he was unable to find another person to back Walbridge's assertion that the Bounty would be safer at sea during the hurricane than in port.
Hansen invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in deciding not to appear at the investigation. The investigating panel will make recommendations on what steps should be taken to avoid similar disasters in the future, and may recommend any criminal charges if it believes they are appropriate.
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