UPDATE: Curtis Grad One Of The Rescuers To Save HMS Bounty Crew in Hurricane Sandy

UPDATE: 5:13 p.m., 10/29/12

The News Tribune's Adam Lynn just reported that U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Jane Peña, a 2000 Curtis High grad, was part of today's rescue of the HMS Bounty's crew.

(Click here to read the TNT's full story)

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ORIGINAL STORY

The same, 17th-century replica ship that went down off the coast of North Carolina in the wake Hurricane Sandy today sailed in the South Sound four years ago.

The HMS Bounty went down around 2 a.m., Pacific Standard Time today, fighting 30-foot waves and punishing winds. It began to take on water. The ship's crew had abandoned ship and had been rescued, but the U.S. Coast Guard was searching for two crew members: Robin Walbridge, the ship's 63-year-old captain, and crew member Claudene Christian.

Within the last hour, rescuers have found Christian's body, but she is unresponsive. Crews are transporting her to a hospital.

The Associated Press reported via the Huffington Post details of the ship's end:

The final hours of the HMS Bounty were as dramatic as the Hollywood adventure films she starred in, with the crew abandoning ship in life rafts as their stately craft slowly went down in 30-foot waves churned up by Hurricane Sandy off the North Carolina coast.

By the time the first rescue helicopter arrived, all that was visible of the replica 18th-century sailing vessel was a strobe light atop the mighty ship's submerged masts. The roiling Atlantic Ocean had claimed the rest.

The News Tribune reports that the HMS Bounty was one of the vessels that participated in the 2008 Tall Ships Festival in Tacoma.

Patch will have more information on this story as it becomes available.