The first day of the Coast Guard investigative hearing on the loss of the tall ship HMS Bounty is past. The owner of the Bounty, Robert Hansen, a wealthy Long Island businessman, took the Fifth and wouldn't talk. First Mate John Svendsen, 41, was grilled for about four hours and gave all the blame for taking the ship into the path of Hurricane Sandy to his dead captain, Robin Walbridge. The parents of dead crew member Claudene Christian were there, represented by a lawyer who spent every opportunity showing them how valuable he was and, as a consequence, getting over-ruled by the Coast Guard commander who is the lead investigator.
I'm not sure what was learned.
Commander Carroll kept coming back to the video posted on You-Tube in which Capt. Walbridge seems to boast that the Bounty "chases hurricanes." He wanted to know whether Svendsen saw the ship chasing hurricanes and if that's what it was doing when it was caught by Sandy and sunk off North Carolina.
I'm curious to hear what other crew members may see. I've spent about six hours talking with one young Bounty crew member whose vivid description of the hours aboard when they sailed from New London, CT toward the storm is gut-wrenching. And we're not done talking.
This is going to be a thrilling story to write when we've gathered all the information. Here's hoping we are able to answer some of the many questions that I believe these hearings will fail to address.