No passengers were on board the Club Royale. Seven other crew members were rescued after noon in a daring hellicopter-to-sea maneuver in which United States Coast Guard swimmers who hung from steel cables in 75-mph winds rescued the survivors from 20-foot seas.Īn eighth member of the 11-man crew had been rescued about two miles from a life raft by the merchant vessel Jarvis Avouts, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Rose. It's estimated that very few chips left the casino in the 30-day operation, and those chips that did survive are considered quite rare. The Club Royale began sailing on July 1, 1995, and operated for exactly one month doing twice-a-day gambling cruises to nowhere.
The captain and two crewmen of the Palm Beach County, Florida, casino-gambling ship Club Royale were lost at sea on August 2, 1995, when the 234-foot vessel sank before dawn in rough seas churned up by Hurricane Erin, about 90-miles east of Port Canaveral, Florida.
