BOUNTY DOOM: Grim Aftermath of Sinking of Tall Ship that Visited Bay City
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Aerial photo shows Tall Ship Bounty sinking off North Carolina last October. (NPR Photo)
Claudene Christian aboard the HMS Bounty, chats with Gerald Zwicker, one of the vessel's original shipwrights. (Wikipedia)
Last month a concert in Wenonah Park was held in tribute to the tall ship Bounty that sank Oct. 29, 2012 off North Carolina during Hurricane Sandy with two deaths.
Saginaw Composer Catherine McMichael's "Legacy of the Bounty" was performed by the Bay Concert Band to an appreciative and perhaps teary-eyed audience here. The concert of maritime and patriotic tunes opened the Tall Ship Festival.
The story of the doomed vessel, that had called here twice during Tall Ships Festivals in 2003 and 2010, is still being sorted out.
Matthew Shaer is already out with a Kindle book, "The Sinking of the Bounty: The True Story of a Tragic Shipwreck and Its Aftermath," ($1.99) published by The Atavist.
The captain's judgment in taking the ship out despite adverse weather reports has been the subject of Coast Guard hearings. But Captain Robin Walbridge went down with his ship and could not defend himself against charges.
Other tall ship captains said they didn't believe a ship such as the Bounty is safer at sea than at port during a hurricane. Walbridge had told the Bounty crew one reason the ship was leaving was because it would be safer at sea.
One skipper wrote an open letter to Walbridge after the sinking, calling his decision to sail "reckless in the extreme."
Amazingly, the other death has eerily dramatic ties to the original Bounty since she was Claudene Christian, the fifth great grand-daughter of Fletcher Christian, the mutinous sailing master from the original HMS Bounty taken by some of the crew in 1789.
"When the HMS Bounty set sail in 1787, Captain William Bligh had only his instincts to safely complete a journey from England to the South Pacific island of Tahiti," wrote Scott Neuman for National Public Radio, observing:
"Last week, Robin Walbridge, captain of a replica of Bligh's ship of mutiny fame, had every modern weather-forecasting resource to plan a voyage from New London, Conn., to St. Petersburg, Fla.
"But it didn't keep him from a fatal misjudgment."
The 180-foot sailing vessel sank off Cape Hatteras, N.C., in heavy seas churned up by the Super Storm Sandy. The captain himself went missing and one other person, Miss Christian, from the crew of 16 was confirmed dead. Fourteen others were plucked from the water by Coast Guard helicopters.
Tim Younkman, writing for The Bay City Times: "The Bounty, a replica of the original British-armed merchant vessel, famed for a mutiny on the high seas in 1789, visited Bay City as part of the Tall Ship Celebration in 2003 and again in 2010.
Wrote Neuman: "The loss of the three-masted Bounty may rate as little more than a footnote amid the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, but it has prompted disbelief from at least one fellow captain who wonders why Walbridge made the decision to venture out into one of the biggest storm systems in decades to hit the U.S. East Coast.
"Dan Moreland, the captain of another tall ship, the Picton Castle, described Walbridge as an experienced seaman, but told The Chronicle Herald of Halifax, Nova Scotia, that he couldn't understand the decision to put out to sea on Thursday with a crew of 11 men and five women, ranging in age from 20 to 66."
Picton Castle and the Bounty were both heading to the same public appearance featuring the traditional sailing vessels in St. Petersburg, which was scheduled for the first weekend of November.
Moreland said he had plenty of weather information that was raising red flags and when he first heard the Bounty was at sea, "I thought, 'You've got to be kidding.'"
Walbridge was apparently well aware of Sandy, but gambled that he could steer a safe course around the storm.
According to The Christian Science Monitor:
"The ship's course out of Connecticut took it due east to try to avoid the oncoming hurricane Sandy. Early on Sunday, the crew felt it had skirted the danger: A Facebook post showed the ship's position on a map well to the east of the storm's fiercest winds.
"They were mistaken. The ship was close to the tail end of the hurricane as it whipped up the Atlantic coast."
The Monitor says details of the ship's final hours are sketchy. "Apparently at least one generator failed, and the Bounty began taking on more water than it could safely handle" as it was pummeled by 18-foot waves off Hatteras, a region long known as a graveyard of ships for its dangerous shoals and treacherous seas.
"On the HMS Bounty's Facebook page, a post went up about 10 a.m. Tuesday mourning the loss of crew member Claudene Christian, offering prayers "for the continued efforts to rescue our Beloved Captain, Robin Walbridge," and requesting donations to help survivors and family.
Walbridge's Bounty was built for the 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando as Lt. Fletcher Christian. The film was remade in 1984, featuring Mel Gibson in the role.
A 1935 version of the film starred Charles Laughton as Bligh and Clark Gable as Christian.
The original HMS Bounty was the scene of the most famous naval mutiny in history, in which the command of Capt. Bligh was overthrown by Christian leading a group of disgruntled crew. Bligh and a few loyal men were set adrift and survived an epic small-boat voyage.
Christian and the other mutineers, with their Tahitian brides, settled on mis-charted Pitcairn Island, where they burned the Bounty to avoid detection from British warships. Their descendants still live on the South Pacific island. ###
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