Monday, 21 January 2013 - 01:21 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Yachting and Spa Category/Kategorie: General, Tall shipsReading Time: 4minutes
Bounty was commissioned by the MGM film studio for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. She was the first large vessel built from scratch for a film using historical sources. Previous film vessels were fanciful conversions of existing vessels. Bounty was built to the original ship’s drawings from files in the British Admiralty archives, and in the traditional manner at the Smith and Rhuland shipyard. To assist film-making and carry production staff, her waterline length was increased from the original 86 to 120 feet (26.2 to 36.6 m) and the beam was also increased. Rigging was scaled up to match. While built for film use, she was fully equipped for sailing. Her construction helped inspire other large sailing replicas such as Bluenose II and HMS Surprise, a replica of HMS Rose.
Bounty was launched on August 27, 1960. Crewed by Lunenburg fishermen and film staff, the vessel sailed via the Panama Canal to Tahiti for filming. Bounty was scheduled to be burned at the end of the film, but actor Marlon Brando protested, so MGM kept the vessel in service. After filming and a worldwide promotional tour, the ship was berthed in St. Petersburg, Florida as a permanent tourist attraction, where she stayed until the mid-1980s. In 1986 Ted Turner acquired the MGM film library and Bounty with it. The ship was used for promotion and entertainment, and was used during the filming of Treasure Island with Charlton Heston in 1989.
At one point in her life, lack of maintenance caused the vessel to temporarily lose her United States Coast Guard license, but Bounty was restored. The vessel’s bottom planking was restored at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard in 2002. Moored in her winter home in St. Petersburg, Florida, she again became available for charter, excursions, sail-training, and movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, In April 2006, Bounty again arrived in Boothbay Harbor for further renovation including refurbishing the ship’s bow and topside decking. Following this renovation, Bounty was scheduled to repeat the famous voyage of the original Bounty.
On October 25, 2012, the vessel left New London, Connecticut, heading for its winter home at St. Petersburg, Florida, initially going on an easterly course to avoid Hurricane Sandy. After the power supply had failed the bilge pumps stopped working and the vessel filled with water. On October 29, 2012 the ship sank off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on the US East Coast. 14 of the sixteeen crew members had been rescued. Claudene Christian, one of the two missing crew members and who claimed to be a descendant of HMS Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian, was found by the Coast Guard. She was unresponsive, and rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. The other missing crew member was long time Captain Robin Walbridge.
