U.S.

Crew Plucked From Sinking Ship

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 18, 2000 / 1:38 PM EST / CBS

The Coast Guard rescued 34 crew members from a sinking cruise ship that had been sailing without passengers just off Virginia in 30-foot seas.

Sunday morning the captain of the Seabreeze I radioed a distress call, reporting that the 600-foot ship was operating on one engine and taking on water, about 200 miles northeast of Cape Henry, Va., Coast Guard Lt. A.J. McGee said.

The ship, owned by International Shipping Partners of Miami, had a capacity of 1,500 people, according to the company's Web site.

The vessel sank shortly after two Coast Guard helicopters hoisted all of the crew members from its rolling deck, Coast Guard Petty Officer Allison von Hagn said.

Heavy winds from a storm system lashing the East Coast made the 25 minute helicopter rescue difficult, Coast Guard pilot Lt. Craig Neubecker told the CBS News Early Show.

"The ship was rising up and down, and the 70-knot winds were forcing us to move up and down quite a bit, too. It was definitely making it difficult," Neubecker said

Neubecker piloted one of the two Jayhawk helicopters, which typically carry eight people in rescues. The Coast Guard says Neubecker set a record when he carried 30 rescued crew members to safety.

The Seabreeze had been en route from Boston to Charleston, S.C.

The cause of the sinking was unknown.

"There may have been a problem with the boiler," Coast Guard spokesman Brendan McPherson said. "Then somehow something broke free and the ship started flooding internally."

Calls to International Shipping Partners were not immediately returned.

Members of the Seabreeze crew were taken to Oceana Naval Air Station at Virginia Beach.

"They are happy to be alive," McPherson said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Darren Reeves, who was unaware of the severity of the damage to the ship when he landed on deck, said he was surprised to find the crew so scared.

"It was their ship, so I figured they knew better than I what kind of trouble it was in," Reeves said. "So when they were scared, it concerned me that the ship was in danger of sinking."

One man with possible heart problems was taken to a hospital. All other crew members were checked by Navy medical personnel and released.

"It was quite unusual that we actually had to pull an entire crew off a cruise ship off," Neubecker said. "That doesn't happen often, and cruise ships don't sink that often, so in that instance it was very unusual."