ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A man is one of the 14 surviving crew members of HMS Bounty which sank off the coast of North Carolina on Monday morning.
John Jones was hoisted into a Coast Guard helicopter above the stormy waters in the Atlantic Ocean.
"It was a mixed bag of emotions," said James Coats, about gathering in St. Augustine with family Monday while awaiting word about the fate of his brother-in-law, "There was a lot of crying going on because we didn't know how the crew and John were doing."
Jones' family had been closely tracking his journey on board the HMS Bounty since it shipped out of Connecticut last week on its way to St. Petersburg.
Coats said, "We knew it would be rough for them on this passage. We all knew in the back of our heads that things do go wrong."
Then came relief when they heard from the coast guard that the 29-year-old Jones was safe.
"It was, of course, joyous. Everyone was relieved," said Coats.
Jones joined the bounty's crew when she recently sailed into his hometown of St. Augustine. The ship was originally built for the 1962 Marlon Brando film, "Mutiny on the Bounty" and was featured in a recent "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.
Built for drama, HMS Bounty created her own real life drama when she sank 90 miles off the Carolina coast.
The U.S. Coast Guard found 42-year-old crew member Claudene Christian in the ocean Monday evening. The 63-year-old captain remains missing, but all 14 other crew members are in good condition.
