HMS Bounty Sinks in Hurricane Sandy
HMS Bounty off southwest Ireland on the way to Cork. For five decades the bounty did promotional tours and was used in several movies. On deck it was 30 feet longer than the original 1784 HMS Bounty.
During an attempt to sail around the eastern side of hurricane Sandy, the 120 foot on deck 18th century replica ship HMS Bounty sank in heavy seas off Elizabeth, North Carolina on October 29. The ship was on a 21 port trip south from Nova Scotia to its winter port in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Of the 16 crew members 14 were rescued from the sinking ship. The captain, Robin Walbridge, 63, was missing and assumed lost after a four-day, 12,000 square mile Coast Guard search. Another crewmember, Claudine Christian, was later recovered from the water, found to be unresponsive and pronounced dead at a hospital.
The Bounty had left New London, Connecticut on October 25 in an attempt to outrun the storm and avoid near shore contact. The owner of the Bounty called the Coast Guard Sunday night after losing radio contact with the ship. Before losing radio contact the Bounty lost auxillary power. The generators failed, the pumps, which had been pumping water out of the hull for 24 hours stopped and the ship began to fill with water.
The captain gave the order to abandon ship while the vessel was still stable. But a giant wave slammed the ship broadside throwing the ship on it’s side just as the crew was launching the two 25 man life rafts. Walbridge, Christian and a third crewmember were swept overboard before reaching the life raft. Coast Guard 5th District at Portsmouth, VA also received an emergency signal identified as the Bounty’s on Sunday. The Coast Guard sent a C-130 Hercules aircraft and two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters from the air station at Elizabeth, NC. The vessel was reportedly taking on water in 40 MPH winds and 18’ seas. Other estimates were of seas near 30’ and gusts to 70 MPH.
When the helicopters arrived at 4:30 am on Monday the 30th the ship’s decks were awash and only the tops of the masts and their strobe lights were visible. Coast Guard rescue swimmer Randy Haba was lowered from a helicopter to swim to a crewmember in the turbulent water and had him raised to the helicopter. The crewmembers were in floatation survival suits. Haba also helped pluck from the sea other crew members who were aboard the canopied life rafts. The first helicopter rescued 5 crewmembers and the second rescued nine just minutes before the Bounty disappeared. First mate John Svendsen credited Walbridge’s endless drills and preparation for the 14 lives that were saved.
The ship went down 160 miles from the eye of the hurricane in an area that is known as The Graveyard of the Atlantic. The Bounty’s last reported position was 33” 54’N and 73” 50’W. Hundreds of ships have gone down along the coast off the Carolinas since before American colonies were established. As early as the late 1500’s European ships loaded with gold and silver from Mexico and South America were sent down by similar weather conditions.
Walbridge, a native of Montpelier, Vermont, was captain of the Bounty for 17 years. Prior to that he had held other positions on the ship for many years. He was considered a consummate captain. The decision to leave port to sail into the storm was questioned by some familiar with the vessel. However, the decision to leave port before a large storm is not uncommon. A vessel being thrown against other vessels and shoreside obstructions is generally considered a greater risk than being at sea. Some thought the enourmous area the storm encompassed may have been underestimated.
Claudia Christian, ironically, was said to be a descendant of Fletcher Christian one the mutineers who took control of the original HMS Bounty from Captain William Bligh while on a trip to Tahiti in 1789. Christian, 42, who grew up in Alaska and graduated from the University of Southern California, had recently joined the crew for the trip from Nova Scotia to St. Petersburg, Florida.
The replica Bounty was built in 1960 for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty starring Marlon Brando. MGM planned to burn the ship after filming was complete. Brando protested and MGM kept it in service where it was used for promotional tours. It was also used in films that include the Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End.
Not simply a movie prop the Bounty was built with the original British Naval drawings for the first HMS Bounty. The replica was built at the Smith and Rhuland Shipyard in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. Built to ship standards, 30 feet were added to the original 90 foot length on deck. Smith and Rhuland built 270 vessels before closing in 2005 after 84 years of shipbuilding. Among the many commercial fishing vessels built there were other replicas including the Bluenose II and HMS Rose.
The Bounty had recently undergone a $3 million restoration that began in 2002 at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard in Maine where the bottom planks were restored. In 2006 it was back in Boothbay Harbor for the restoration of the ships bow and the topsides decking. The Bounty was perhaps the world’s best known replica ship having sailed to countries around the world for decades on promotional and educational ventures.
See USCG video of HMS Bounty rescue at: http://boingboing.net/2012/10/29/rescue-video-sandy-sinks-hms.html