Three crewmen were found in a liferaft in the Atlantic, two days after their tugboat took on water and sank during Hurricane Lorenzo. An international search effort, coordinated by the French Navy, found the bodies of four other crewmen, and they are searching for seven more who are still missing.
Bourbon Rhode, the ocean-going tug, was near the center of the hurricane, about 1,200 nm off Martinique, when it issued a distress call. It was en route from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to Georgetown, Guyana. Lorenzo was a Category 4 hurricane at the time.
The French Maritime Rescue Coordination Center launched a massive search and rescue operation, and several commercial ships changed course to help. NOAA diverted a plane based in Barbados.
A French Navy Falcon 50 jet, designed for search and rescue operations, spotted the raft with the three crewmen on board, and it directed the closest commercial vessel to pick them up. They were reported to be in good condition, although two of them “were a little bit tired,” according to a French official.
The Bourbon Rhode, built in 2006, was 162 feet long and carried four liferafts. It is not known if the other three got off the boat. The search is continuing. Read more:
https://weather.com/news/news/2019-09-28-bourbon-rhode-boat-crew-rescued-lorenzo
