PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - The owner of a replica 18th-century sailing ship that sank off North Carolina during Hurricane Sandy has declined to testify at a hearing to examine what led to the sinking.
A federal safety panel began a hearing Tuesday into the sinking of the HMS Bounty, which had been built for the 1962 film "Mutiny on the Bounty." Coast Guard officials say they were notified by an attorney for owner Robert Hansen that he was invoking his Fifth Amendment right to be protected from incriminating himself.
One member of the HMS Bounty's crew died and the captain was never found after the ship sank 90 miles off Cape Hatteras during the October storm.
Surviving crew members and representatives of the shipyard where the Bounty underwent repairs weeks before sinking were among those subpoenaed to testify.
John
Jones of St. Augustine was among those rescued by the Coast Guard.
