Canadian sailing classroom vessel done in by a microburst that sank her in twenty seconds. All aboard rescued. I believe another educational ship sank like this and, maybe, a movie made of it? I’ll have to go prowl around.
This local paper has further details.
The Concordia’s captain, the American William Curry, told reporters that he thought the cause of the shipwreck was a sudden, powerful gust of vertical wind. He also said that the sailboat sank in just 20 seconds.
Curry said that one of the three lifeboats had to be detached from the sailboat with a knife, and that a crew member, “with great courage,” jumped in the water to recover an emergency signal that had fallen in the sea.
“His intervention was fundamental since it put the signal in the boat, which helped send the navy our call for help,” Curry said, alluding to officer Goff Byers.
Young Lauren Unsworth, 16, said that the students were at class when the boat was shipwrecked, which, she said, occurred when “the boat heeled over and the windows broke.”
“We had to climb a wall, put on life jackets and get in the life rafts,” she said.
The Japanese-flagged merchant ship Hokuetsu Delight with a Philippine crew, which was sailing near the site of the shipwreck, was alerted by the navy and picked up 48 of the people who had been on the Canadian boat. Later another 16 were rescued.
Keaton Farwell, 17, had words of thanks for the sailors who rescued her: “They were very polite, they loaned us clothes and washed ours.”
The teen said she felt lost at sea in the midst of the storm. “We thought we weren’t going to survive. We cried with happiness when we saw the airplanes flying over us. It’s hard to describe the emotion.”
UPDATE: I believe I was thinking of this ship, The Pride of Baltimore. But no movie, apparently, and no students. Other than that, my memory was accurate. I was aboard a 30′ boat out on the Sound once when we were hit by a microburst and stand a very long minute on our side. Caught our attention, most assuredly.
UPDATE II: Aha! There was a school ship that sunk, and there was a movie, White Squall”, made in 1997 and starring Jeff Bridges (one of my favorite actors – I’ll have to get this on NetFlix). The actual sinking happened in 1961, to the Albatross.