COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Two people were reported missing Sunday after a century-old wooden schooner sank in strong winds off the Danish coast. Fifteen of the 17 people on board were rescued.
Shortly before midnight Saturday, the two-mast schooner Martha radioed that it was leaking. Several nearby ships brought extra pumps to the ailing vessel in the Kattegat Sea between the Jutland peninsula and the island of Anholt.
The captain later reported that the situation was under control.
As the ship was being prepared for towing, the passengers, young Danes between the ages of 17 and 23, put on life vests and survival gear, the Danish Navy said.
However, 45 minutes later, the 104-year-old schooner sank rapidly. Its passengers boarded rescue boats, but two crew members disappeared in the sea, the Navy said in a statement.
Winds were gusting to 37 miles per hour.
Sunday afternoon, Navy helicopters and ships continued to search the area for the missing crewmen. Because of waves of up to seven feet, divers could not attempt to reach the sunken ship.
All the ship’s passengers were members of a Danish association that had been maintaining and modernizing the 102-foot vessel.
The ship, which left the northern Danish port of Frederikshavn, was on its way to Svendborg in central Denmark when it sank.
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