UPDATE: A 15th crew member who was found unresponsive several hours after the others was later pronounced dead. The Bounty’s captain was still missing.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Coast Guard Vice Adm. Robert Parker, Operational Commander for the Atlantic Area, told “Good Morning America’s” George Stephanopoulos Monday morning that the HMS Bounty had sunk and two crewmembers were unaccounted for.

The Coast Guard in Portsmouth initially received a call from the owner of the 180-foot, three mast tall ship late Sunday evening, saying she had lost communication with the vessel’s 16-member crew. It was previously reported to be a 17-person crew.

An air crew from Elizabeth City, N.C., sent out an HC-130 Hercules aircraft to establish communications with the Bounty’s crew. The vessel was taking on two feet of water an hour and had no propulsion before it sank approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras N.C., Monday.

Parker said the 16 crewmembers abandoned ship into canopied, rubber life rafts with about 10 feet of water on board.

Two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., rescued 14 people from life rafts in winds of 40 mph and 18-foot Atlantic Ocean seas.

Parker told GMA that nine people were loaded onto one helicopter and five others on another. They were flown to Elizabeth City where they were met by awaiting emergency medical services personnel.

The C-130 Hercules aircraft is searching for the two missing crewmembers and a third Jayhawk crew is en route to assist search and rescue efforts.

The director of the HMS Bounty Organization, Tracie Simonin, said that the tall ship left Connecticut last week for St. Petersburg, Fla. She said the crew had been in constant contact with the National Hurricane Center and tried to go around the storm [Hurricane Sandy].

The ship was a replica of the one made famous in the 1960 MGM film “Mutiny on the Bounty” and it was used in that film, which starred Marlin Brando. The ship was also used in the film “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”

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http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=8864382