DATE: Sunday, May 11, 1997                  TAG: 9705110070

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B09  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   33 lines

STENNIS SENT TO AID SAILBOAT CREW THE ANKH WAS DRIFTING 450 MILES EAST OF CAPE HENRY AFTER ITS CAPTAIN WAS INJURED.

A Coast Guard plane, a Navy carrier and a merchant ship searched the Atlantic Ocean about 450 miles off the Virginia coast Saturday and located a sailboat left adrift after its captain was injured.

The carrier John C. Stennis, based at the Norfolk Naval Station, was heading toward the sailboat and was expected to be near enough Saturday night to send helicopters to pick up the passengers, said Coast Guard spokesman Brandon Brewer.

The engine of the Ankh was not working and two passengers on the boat did not know how to sail it after the skipper was seriously injured, Brewer said.

The sailboat was on a voyage from Bermuda to its home port in Rhode Island when the captain was injured, Brewer said. He did not know the names of those on the boat or the nature of the captain's injuries.

A Coast Guard C-130 Hercules search plane was dispatched shortly after the disabled boat activated an emergency positioning beacon around 8 a.m., and located it about 450 miles east of Cape Henry.

Aside from the Stennis, the Panamanian container ship Able Forest was steaming toward the floundering sailboat. The cruise ship Royal Majesty was also diverted about four hours off its course toward the Ankh, but has since resumed its voyage toward Boston, Brewer said. KEYWORDS: U.S. COAST GUARD SEARCH AND RESCUE U.S.S.

STENNIS

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu