windjammer fantome

[spacemanspiff1974]

Been having a bit of trouble finding this info on google, so I thought I would ask here...

Back in 1998 the windjammer Fantome was caught and sunk by Hurricane Mitch off the coast of Honduras.

Does anybody know the location of the wreck? Is it diveable, i.e is it within a depth range where one could avoid hpns?

 

[mike_s]

I don't know if they ever determined an "exact" sinking location.

she went down with "all hands" (crew only). They put the passengers ashore for saftey purposes and for some stupid reason had the crew take the boat out to "ride out the hurricane" at sea. I guess their company was more concerned about the boat being sunk in port by the storm than they were for the saftey of their crew.

 

[Rick Murchison]

I don't know if they ever determined an "exact" sinking location.

she went down with "all hands" (crew only). They put the passengers ashore for saftey purposes and for some stupid reason had the crew take the boat out to "ride out the hurricane" at sea. I guess their company was more concerned about the boat being sunk in port by the storm than they were for the saftey of their crew.

Without getting too deeply into the subject, it is almost always better for a ship to put to sea for a hurricane than to remain in port - especially these days when with modern weather monitoring and GPS equipment you can run clear of the worst of it. Boats are another matter, and Fantome was sort of in between. The story of the Fantome is a sad one; she got trapped. Why and how will make a great research project, book and movie. Under any circumstances your opinion about the owners' priorities is unfounded, unfair and misplaced.
As for the original question, it is believed she sunk in deep water; to my knowledge she has not yet been found.
Rick

 

[spacemanspiff1974]

Without getting too deeply into the subject, it is almost always better for a ship to put to sea for a hurricane than to remain in port - especially these days when with modern weather monitoring and GPS equipment you can run clear of the worst of it. Rick

I think a lot of people were suprised by how much Mitch intensified as well as the direction it took. From what I recall, Mitch actually shifted south which trapped the Fantome. I remember from my sailing experience that in the event of a hurricane, one should try to get on its south west side if at all possible (at least in the northern hemisphere).

Still, hindsight would have said scrap the boat and save the lives. But who knew?

Thanks for the info regarding water depth. If it had sunk in 200-300 feet or so it would have made a great technical deep wreck dive. Oh well.

 

[mike_s]

The north east side of the hurricane I thought was the most violent part? I don't know as I'm not a hurricane chaser.

I know that you put large ships out to sea in the event of hurricane, but this mostly applies to powered large navy vessels, not sailboats like this that have much slower aux power and are typically slower than 9-12 knots. This boat leaked like crazy at anchor and the bildge pumps had a hard time keeping up then, much less in a raging storm. No ship like that can handle 40 foot waves and winds over 100mph for substained periods.

 

[spacemanspiff1974]

On land the most dangerous part of the storm is the part that is coming in off the ocean. Where it it brings in more wind and water. The part that is circling back from being over land would be somewhat less intense. Thus, if a hurricane was hitting between Galveston and Corpus Christi, it would be better to be closer to corpus than Galveston. Still, it would be better to be in Amarillo.

As far as Mitch goes, I believe it shifted south somewhat from its projected path which caught the ship by suprise (at least from what I remember of the news reports at the time).

 

[notabob]

Interesting (at least to me) side-note... Back in '98 the cream of the crop of my company's sales team and their significant others spent a week on the Fantome. A mere week or two later she was lost. Always wondered what would've happened had the scheduling was different... :icorolley

-Roman.

 

[Damselfish]

Interesting (at least to me) side-note... Back in '98 the cream of the crop of my company's sales team and their significant others spent a week on the Fantome. A mere week or two later she was lost. Always wondered what would've happened had the scheduling was different... :icorolley

-Roman.

since all the passengers were taken off it wouldn't have been any different ...

 

[notabob]

Yeah, I knew the passengers were taken off. Still, it's interesting to ponder the possibilities...

-Roman.

 

[loudives]

She was a good ship