Body Found Adrift in Hurricane’s Wake
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MIAMI — Searchers found a body floating inside a life raft from the gambling cruise ship Club Royale, which sank earlier this week in the dangerous seas whipped up by Hurricane Erin, a Coast Guard spokesman said Friday.
“We have not yet identified the body,” the spokesman said.
The raft, which was identified as belonging to the 235-foot ship, was spotted about 200 miles off the Florida-Georgia border, he said.
The captain, the cook and a senior executive of the cruise line were lost at sea when the ship sank. Eight other crew mates were rescued about 18 hours later off Cape Canaveral.
No passengers were aboard the ship because it had headed out to sea to ride out the storm.
The storm blasted through the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama on Thursday before losing strength as it moved inland and dissipated into rain. When it hit the Pensacola area, it had 94-m.p.h. winds and gusts up to 103 m.p.h. On Wednesday, Erin cut a swath across Central Florida.
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