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Crew Members Recall Harrowing Rescue Off Gloucester Coast

GLOUCESTER (CBS) – It was high seas rescue off the Gloucester coast from a floundering Canadian tall ship. And the crew is safe with one heck of a story.

The conditions were terrible as the ship's equipment began to fail. That's when the Coast Guard was called in.

Gloucester Rescue
Coast Guard rescuers pull in a member of the Liana's Ransom. (Image Credit: U.S. Coast Guard)

"I didn't make the jump from our ship to the Coast Guard vessel," Luke Arbuckle, one of the nine crew members aboard the Liana's Ransom, told WBZ-TV.

Arbuckle was forced to be rescued by helicopter after his leap off his ship came up short.

"Apparently the ship separated just as I jumped over, and I ended up in the water," recalled Arbuckle.

The Ransom is a two-mast pirate ship replica that sails charters. She left Yarmouth, Nova Scotia just three days before disaster struck.

"This was our shakedown cruise after quite a long time of being laid up for the winter," says Ryan Tilley, the ship's captain, who said everything went wrong.

Engines and a generator failed, sails tore and a mast would eventually collapse.

"It was frightening, harrowing. But I have to commend my crew.  They all maintained their cool," Tilley says.

It was the crews aboard two Coast Guard vessels out of Gloucester that saved the day.

Petty officers John Borzilleri and Rick Bowen were at the helms, and answered the distress call.

"We had to go out there about 45 miles off shore and put them in tow," said Borzilleri.

But 10-foot seas and high winds thwarted that attempt, so they dropped the tow line, eased their boats in close, and told the floundering crew to jump.

"We'd just go in real quick, pick them up and back out, and John would go in with his boat and we just took turns going back and forth. It was a 'thank God' experience that they're here," Arbuckle said.

"They're in trouble and you help them and bring them back to dry land. It's definitely a great feeling," added Bowen.

The schooner will be towed to port for extensive repairs. The crew will remain in Gloucester for the time being and can't say enough about the help they received from the Coast Guard.

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