[Cruising] Sinking, saved, sounds like home

The Sailing Vessel Angeliki had two crew members, Aielt Scholtens and Dia Boekeloo, on board.
The sixty-two year old Dutch Captain and his sixty-one year old wife were rescued by a passing freighter Tuesday afternoon, (4 April) after they radioed a distress signal indicating that their sailing boat was sinking.
The couple who were sailing around the Caribbean in their 43 foot, two-mastered sailing boat, were en route to Little Cayman from Cayo Largo, Cuba, when problems developed. The propeller shaft had broken and water was gushing in through the shaft hole.
The original plan had been to tow the sinking vessel to West End, Cayman Brac, where the couple would have been transferred to a Cayman Brac Customs vessel and the boat towed into shore. However, that plan was abandoned when the vessel sank while in tow about 15 miles north of Little Cayman at approximately 5:00 pm.

The UAL Angola that took the two on board is also named 'Damsterdiep' oddly being the name of a canal along both have lived for years in the Netherlands.

[Update]
the actual position was: 9.58.51N 080.03.06W
The website is : http://www.sailing-angelique.com/ including pictures of the rescue
The EPIRB worked, their son was informed (in the Netherlands, way way east) by the Dutch Coast Guard (but I assume it also informed rescue teams)
The crew from the Agola (formely known as Damsterdiep) tried to save the boat:pumps got cluttered and there was no space available on deck.

Question remains: should we have something to stop our shaft from gliding out the boat if it breaks? The possibillity happening is small, the results ...