(Updated Oct. 30, 2012)
The beautiful tall ship Bounty is gone, sunk off Cape Hatteras by Hurricane Sandy. Her crew of 16 was forced to abandon ship in the middle of the night last night, and two of them were swept into the sea while trying to board the life rafts. The Coast Guard has rescued those in the rafts and continues its search for the two missing crew members. It’s difficult to imagine aircraft flying at all in such conditions, much less finding two people bobbing somewhere in the turbulent seas. But we can hope.
Meantime, HMS Bounty Organization, the ship’s owner, could not be reached for comment. Some have questioned why such a ship was sailing at all, rather than taking shelter in the nearest port.
Bounty, a replica of the 1784 original, was built for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. She was also used in the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. She’ll be missed by those of us who love sailing and the tall ships.
Incidentally, I’m not sure if she should correctly be referred to as HMS Bounty or simply Bounty, as she was not actually a ship of the Royal Navy.
(More photos here.)
Update: The missing crew members were Claudene Christian and ship captain Robin Walbridge. Christian was unresponsive when pulled from the water and was later pronounced dead at a North Carolina hospital. Walbridge has not been found. The Christian Science Monitor has a detailed story of Bounty’s repairs and final voyage.
Coast Guard video of the rescue:
Related articles
- Crew of HMS Bounty rescued in lifeboats (itv.com)
- Crew abandons tall ship HMS Bounty (abcactionnews.com)
- Hurricane Sandy forces HMS Bounty evacuation – CBC.ca (cbc.ca)
- 14 Rescued, 2 Missing From Tall Ship (abcnews.go.com)
- HMS Bounty Sinks Off North Carolina (joemygod.blogspot.com)
- Oklahoma woman one of the missing crew from the HMS Bounty (wtkr.com)
saw the rescue – so sad – even if it is just a replica….scary situation for the crew.
I saw a bit of video earlier today. Awful conditions for an air rescue. It’s a wonder the CG was able to rescue any of them.
Why in the world were they out sailing?
One report said the ship had been refitted in Conn. and was returning to its home port in Florida. They were hoping to go around the storm. Obviously very bad judgment on someone’s part.
Obviously. And stupidity. Should have just waited it out then they wouldn’t have to worry about the storm.
Actually the safest place for a boat (with a large enough and well trained/seasoned crew) is in the ocean during a storm – but they should have started out much much earlier and hugged the coast and probably could have crept past the storm while it was mostly out at sea. …sailing directly into a hurricane isn’t wise.
(Much worse to stay in port up against land when a hurricane is coming at you…might as well just sink it in the slip and hope to raise it later after the storm – with a smaller boat you need to know where the hurricane “holes” are and move quickly where boaters go to weather a storm on the water – but a ship this size probably didn’t have that option)
At least they had those heavy orange survival suits.
Great loss. It was supposed to go to Florida then sail to Galveston for the winter – Our tall ship Elissa is in dry dock so there was a perfect slip waiting for Bounty
Mixed blessing, I guess, living so close to the sea. You get pounded with hurricanes occasionally, but in exchange you have beaches and tall ships and other beautiful things. I’m sorry Bounty won’t be among them.
There’s always trade-offs where you live. Our beaches aren’t like Florida’s, but much better than concrete!
Could do with a few mountains, though…then it woul dbe close to perfect!
To me, beaches are just sort of a curiosity. I’m not a fan of sand or salt water.
Don’t forget the grit the unrelenting wind pounds into you! Better witnessed from a boat offshore…not really beach people – especially during the summer. UGH
Understood. Don’t like sand and salt water that get into everything, go home with you, and have to be washed off. Not to mention the insane humidity. A boat offshore … yes, that’s the way to do it.