The new (HMS) Bounty sinks

[whitehall]

What were they thinking? The ship was built in 1962 for a movie and was a real three mast sailing ship similar to the original HMS Bounty. It was apparently equipped with the latest technological gear which allowed the fools to call for help when they began taking water off the Outer Banks of N.C aka "the graveyard of the Atlantic. The skipper, who had piloted the ship for the last 17, years insisted that it was safer at sea than it would have been in port in Conn. The ship is gone and the skipper, Capt Walbridge is missing. The crew refuses to speak to the media and there isn't much coverage of the disaster.

 

[tinydancer]

This story is truly sad. I was following it at the Daily Mail. The ship was built up here in Lunenburg Nova Scotia (I've been there and this small town is awesome for its ship building history).

The replica of the Bounty was also used in Pirates of the Caribbean. It's such a pity.

Here's some pictures and the link to the Daily Mail coverage.

Ahh, but here she is in all her glory.

And here's the link for you.

HMS Bounty in Hurricane Sandy path: Captain dies as vessel is smashed to pieces by Superstorm | Mail Online

 

[rightwinger]

This story is truly sad. I was following it at the Daily Mail. The ship was built up here in Lunenburg Nova Scotia (I've been there and this small town is awesome for its ship building history).

The replica of the Bounty was also used in Pirates of the Caribbean. It's such a pity.

Here's some pictures and the link to the Daily Mail coverage.

Ahh, but here she is in all her glory.

And here's the link for you.

HMS Bounty in Hurricane Sandy path: Captain dies as vessel is smashed to pieces by Superstorm | Mail Online

I saw the ship when I was in Lunenberg.....it was fine workmanship. Sad to lose it

 

[asterism]

Truly tragic. It really wasn't safe in port but it should have sailed away from the storm (north or east). She spent winters in Florida and I'm sure that was part of the reason to head south.

 

[whitehall]

Bad (egocentric?) decision to put the big ship in the middle of a hundred year storm? What a shame for investors.

 

[Valerie]

I was very bummed when I heard this.

The H.M.S. Bounty sails past the Chicago skyline during a 2003 tall-ship festival.




When the Bounty set sail last Thursday from Connecticut en route for St. Petersburg, Florida, Captain Walbridge expressed optimism that his crew could navigate around the hurricane.

"Rest assured that the Bounty is safe and in very capable hands," Walbridge wrote on the vessel's Facebook page. "Bounty's current voyage is a calculated decision...NOT AT ALL... irresponsible or with a lack of foresight as some have suggested. The fact of the matter is... A SHIP IS SAFER AT SEA THAN IN PORT!"

But after two days, the updates became more grim. "I think we are going to be into this for several days," Walbridge wrote in an update. "We are just going to keep trying to go fast and squeese [sic] by the storm and land as fast as we can."

The last update from the Bounty was posted Sunday night. One of the ship's generators had failed, it said, and an alarming amount of water had seeped into the vessel.

Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Coast Guard received a distress call from the Bounty, sinking about 90 miles (145 kilometers) off the coast of Hatteras, North Carolina. The ship's crew had donned cold-water survival suits and life jackets before abandoning ship in two 25-person covered lifeboats.

H.M.S. Bounty Sinks: Rescue and Rich Legacy in Pictures