NEW YORK -- A week after technical consultants predicted 42
year-old SeaBreeze had a lot of cruising ahead of it, the
ex-Premier Cruise Lines ship capsized in a storm off Virginia on
Dec. 17.
Two U.S. Coast Guard helicopters rescued 34 crew members from
the foundering vessel. The U.S. Coast Guard said SeaBreeze sank
shortly after the rescue.
The crew were taken to Oceana Naval Air Station at Virginia Beach;
one with possible cardiac problems was taken to a hospital. There
were no passengers aboard.
The Coast Guard received a distress call from SeaBreeze at about
11:30 a.m.
The ship was 200 miles east of Cape Charles, Va., had lost one
engine and was taking on water in 30-foot seas accompanied by
50-knot winds. Coast Guard helicopters reached the ship about 1:15
p.m. The cause of the capsizing was not immediately clear.
"There may have been a problem with the boiler," said a Coast
Guard spokesman. A spokesman at International Shipping Partners, a
Miami-based firm that had been managing SeaBreeze, could not
confirm the vessel's sinking.
SeaBreeze, built in 1958 as the Frederico C, was one of several
ships arrested in international ports following Premier's September
collapse. SeaBreeze was detained in Halifax, Nova Scotia until
recently, when its owner, investment company Donaldson, Lufkin
& Jenrette, settled Canadian claims that allowed the ship's
release.
The ship was headed to Charleston for engine repairs when it was
caught in the storm.
Technical personnel at International Shipping Partners told
European shipping publications last week that SeaBreeze "[Has] many
years of trading ahead of her."