Skipper still lost at sea after Hurricane Sandy hits US

The skipper of the HMS Bounty replica is missing at sea and the body of one other crew member has been recovered.

The 16-person crew abandoned the ship at about 5am Monday, after the vessel lost power and started to take on water in rough water churned up by Hurricane Sandy, 90 miles southeast of North Carolina.

Two US Coastguard helicopters recovered the crew on Monday evening.

However, Claudene Christian, 42, was ‘unresponsive’ when she was rescued and was later pronounced dead.

63-year-old skipper Robin Walbridge is still unaccounted for.

The original Bounty, a British transport vessel, gained infamy for a mutiny in Tahiti in 1789.

The replica was built in 1962 for the Marlon Brando film Mutiny On The Bounty and also starred in a Pirates Of The Caribbean sequel.

The three-mast, 180-foot vessel was sailing from Connecticut to Florida, when it got caught roughly 160 miles from the centre of the hurricane, which is currently battering the American east coast.

Pictures have confirmed that Bounty has sunk.

HMS Bounty abandoned in Hurricane Sandy.