American Dies on Sailboat Enroute to Bermuda

November 22, 2010

[Updated] Around 4:55pm yesterday [Nov 21], Police received a report of a sudden death at sea onboard a sailboat enroute to Bermuda.

The deceased is a 64 year old American man. The two survivors, a 63 year old American man and a 25 year old American woman, were rescued by another vessel and arrived safely in Bermuda this morning.

The American Consulate has been informed and inquiries are underway by the Bermuda Police Service Marine Unit. The Police state that no further information will be released until the next of kin has been notified.

[See comment below for full story]

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  1. The vessel had departed Marthas Vineyard around 2 weeks ago bound for Bermuda with the owner and 2 crew onboard (crew were father and daughter), shortly after entering the Gulf Stream they encountered unexpectedly bad weather and the owner reports experiencing 25-30 ft waves. During this storm the vessel rolled over and Mr William Thorns was lost overboard. Mr Thorns daughter, Amanda, and the vessel owner Mr Dennis White were left drifting for 12 days without any power or means of raising the alarm. The vessel lost the use of her sails and motor during the incident and it took the 2 survivours 3 days to bail out the boat. During the initial period after the storm a large piece of rigging was left in the water still attached to the yacht and this very easily could have ruptured the hull. After failed attempts to hail 2 passing merchant vessels, the two managed to catch the attention of an 80,000 GRT Oil tanker that was sailing from Philadelphia to Nigeria, by using hand held flares.

    The tanker “Triathlon” rescued Miss Thorn and Mr White and landed them safely in Bermuda at 06:50 this morning. Miss Thorn has since flown home and Mr White is being looked after locally.

    Whilst it is always easy to find solutions to problems in hindsight, Bermuda Radio strongly suggests that all vessels that are attempting Atlantic crossings should carry a working 406mhz EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) onboard their vessel, in this case it would not have helped save the life of Mr Thorns but would have ensured that help was sent as soon as the vessel encountered problem.

    Bermuda radio deals with around 1000 sailing vessels a year transiting between the States, Caribbean and Europe and so far this year has handled over 500 search and rescue incidents.

    • bernews says:

      Thank you very much for that insight, much appreciated…

    • Marie says:

      Dennis was well known in the wooden boat community. Dennis White and Julie Robinson who took ten years to sail their Herreshoff 28 around the world, giving birth to two children on the way. as per http://www.samlow.com/vineyard/AketchcalledDestiny.htm

      Most don’t realize in a tragedy like this that even a good sailor encounters problems.

  2. Timothy Hickey says:

    Could someone please indicate the size of the vessel? Thanks :)