Guard rescuers that his boat was in imminent danger of sinking as a result of its engine room being flooded in high winds and seas. At the time, the Coast Guard rescuers believed that it was highly unlikely for a ship that large to sink that quickly, and were astonished when the Greek captain demanded that all hands be extracted from the ship, instead of requesting salvage tugs and trying to tow it to shore for recovery. Subsequently, all 34 crewmembers were rescued; there were no passengers on board. At the time of the sinking, Steven Cotton of the International Transport Workers' Federation in London stated that he wished that the ship, which went down off the Virginia coast, had gone down closer to the coast because that would have put the case in the hands of American investigators. According to Cotton, "Panama's track record of carrying out comprehensive investigations into vessel sinkings is not very good." The vessel had just been purchased by Cruise Ventures III, a subsidiary of New York-based DLJ Capital Funding, and was traveling from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Charleston, South Carolina. Gallery References External links Review of the Seabreeze (archived) 1957 ships Costa Cruises Sunken cruise ships Maritime incidents in 2000 Ships built in Genoa Shipwrecks of the Virginia coast Ships built by Gio. Ansaldo & C. Ships sunk with no fatalities