Crew Safe in ‘Pod’ as Oil Rig Capsizes

NEW YORK — An offshore oil rig being towed across the Atlantic Ocean capsized in high winds Thursday but all 26 crew members were safe inside an enclosed boat called a “survival pod,” the Coast Guard reported.

The rig, Rowan Gorilla I, capsized about 1,200 miles east of New York City in gale-force winds and 40-foot seas, Coast Guard officials said.

The tugboat Smit London, which had been towing the rig from Nova Scotia to Yarmouth, England, remained with the pod, said Lt. Cmdr. Paul Milligan, a Coast Guard spokesman in New York.

Two commercial vessels were heading toward the tug and pod, but because of weather conditions officials said it would take two days to get the crew out.