A tall ship built in Nova Scotia has been lost in Hurricane Sandy.

The HMS Bounty went down in heavy seas off the Carolinas Monday morning and her crew spent the morning in violent waters after abandoning the sinking ship.

Officials with the U.S. Coast Guard eventually plucked 14 people from the Atlantic Ocean and spent much of the day searching for two missing crew members.  

“I saw a 30-foot wave break over their raft while our swimmer was down there, so they were getting a very good ride down there,” says U.S. Coast Guard Lt.-Cmdr. Steve Bonn.

One of the missing crew members, 42-year-old Claudene Christian, was found unresponsive in the water Monday evening.

The coast guard said she was taken to hospital in Elizabeth City, where she was later pronounced dead.

Rescuers are still searching for the missing captain of the HMS Bounty.

Both Christian and the ship's captain, 63-year-old Robin Walbridge, were wearing survival suits designed to help keep them afloat and protected from cold waters for up to 15 hours.

Despite repeated weather warnings, the HMS Bounty left Connecticut headed for Florida. On the way, it travelled into the path of Hurricane Sandy, off the coast of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina.

The ship started taking on water Sunday night and one of its generators failed. The crew was ordered off the ship early Monday, and a few hours later it sank.

The replica HMS Bounty was built in Lunenburg in 1960 for the 1962 movie, Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando.

It returned to the big screen and to the Maritimes many times since then.

Retired shipyard manager Alan Altass worked on the ship during many of those visits.

“I don’t know what it is about the Bounty, to be honest with you. I’ve been involved with the Bluenose over the years too, but the Bounty is just something special for me, and I don’t know what it is.”

Along the same wharf in Lunenburg, the tall ship Picton Castle is storm-stayed.

“We didn’t go because we didn’t know where it (the storm) was going to go,” says Capt. Dan Moreland.

“It could go anywhere. And then it became increasingly clear last week that this was going to be a very big storm and take over the North Atlantic, and of course that’s what it done.”

Premier Darrell Dexter issued a statement Monday afternoon, asking Nova Scotians not to give up hope.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the two crew members who are still unaccounted for," said Dexter in the statement.  

"I want to thank the brave men and women who risked their lives in difficult conditions to rescue the crew members they could find, and I wish them all the best in their continued efforts to bring the remaining crew members home safe and sound."

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kelland Sundahl and The Associated Press