Trial Beginning in Sailboat Wreck

When the Morning Dew sank off Charleston, S.C., during a winter storm in 1997, a distress call was radioed to the Coast Guard and a cry for help was later heard from the water. But the Coast Guard waited more than eight hours to dispatch rescue units and, by that time, the sailboat’s four crewmen--a father and three teenage boys--had drowned. Today, a trial begins in federal court in Charleston to decide a $35-million lawsuit brought by the victims’ families, who claim the Coast Guard bungled the mission, with deadly consequences. During earlier hearings, government attorneys argued unsuccessfully that the case should be tossed out because, under the law, the Coast Guard has no obligation to perform searches.