2 crew members still missing from HMS Bounty

The US Coast Guard continued a search Monday for two crew members from the HMS Bounty, which sank off the coast of North Carolina. 

Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Brandyn Hill  told AP that 14 other crew members were rescued by helicopter around 6:30 a.m. Monday.

Two of the crew members did not make it onto the 25-foot life boats. Fox News reports that the rescue took place during 40 mph winds and 18-foot seas.

The 180-foot, three mast ship lost communication with its owner after being caught in Hurricane Sandy late Sunday, reports NBC News.

The director of the HMS Bounty Organization, Tracie Simonin, said the ship had left Connecticut last week on its way to St. Petersburg, Fla.

"They were staying in constant contact with the National Hurricane Center," she said. "They were trying to make it around the storm."

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Robert Parker, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that at the time of the distress call on Sunday, the ship was taking on two feet of water an hour.

The crew abandoned ship with about 10 feet of water on board, said Vice Adm. Parker. 

The HMS Bounty replica was built for the 1962 Marlon Brando movie, "Mutiny on the Bounty" and was also used during filming for Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

According to CNN, Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. on the Delmarva Peninsula or Jersey Shore.