Hurricane Sandy claims the HMS Bounty

[Brooksie]

Hurricane Sandy has consumed a piece of film history, the replica of the HMS Bounty created for the 1962 version of 'Mutiny on the Bounty'. Thoughts and prayers go out to the crew members who have still not been found.

The story behind the HMS Bounty, sunk by Sandy off N.C. coast

Early Monday morning, two US Coast Guard helicopters rescued 14 crew members of the HMS Bounty, ensnared by hurricane Sandy. But the Coast Guard is still searching for two missing crew.

WASHINGTON
Hurricane Sandy has already claimed a well-known victim, as the massive storm has sunk the tall ship HMS Bounty off the coast of North Carolina.

Two US Coast Guard helicopters rescued 14 of the ship’s 16 crew members early Monday morning. The Coast Guard is still searching for the two missing crew, a service spokesman said.

The ship issued a distress call at 6:30, Eastern time, on Sunday evening, according to the website of the HMS Bounty Organization. At that time it lost power, and pumps were thus unable to keep up with water rising in the ship. The vessel was taking on two feet of water per hour, according to the Associated Press.

Bounty Organization officials contacted the Coast Guard, which sent a C-130 aircraft to track the distressed vessel at its location, approximately 90 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. By 4:30 a.m., the situation was so bad that the captain ordered the ship abandoned, according to the website. The Coast Guard says its helicopters pulled 14 survivors from lifeboats by 6:30 a.m. Monday.

In 1789, the original HMS Bounty played a role in the one of the most famous stories in maritime history. A small three-masted sailing vessel sent by Britain’s Royal Navy to the Pacific on a supply expedition, the Bounty was roiled by tension between its crew and Capt. William Bligh.

After landing in Tahiti and taking on a cargo of breadfruit, the Bounty set sail for the West Indies. It never reached that destination. Instead, mate Fletcher Christian led the men in a mutiny against what history has long portrayed as the abuses of Bligh. Bligh and his loyalists were allowed to sail off in a longboat. They reached safety at the Dutch-owned port of Kupang after an arduous journey.

Christian and his followers ended up on Pitcairn Island. They burned the Bounty there and settled on the island with the ship’s livestock, other provisions, and some Tahitian natives.

Passing ships did not discover the enclave until after the turn of the century. At that time only one of the mutineers, and a number of Tahitian women, remained alive.

The ship that sank Monday was a replica of the original Bounty, built for the 1962 “Mutiny on the Bounty” movie, which starred Marlon Brando as Christian. It was constructed from original Royal Navy plans, but was made one-third larger to accommodate cameras and other filming equipment.

Over the years it has starred in a number of sailing movies, including the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series, in which it was the pirate ship Black Pearl.

Tracie Simonin, director of the HMS Bounty Organization, said that the ship left Connecticut last week bound for Florida and was in contact with the National Hurricane Center as it tried to skirt the massive storm barreling up the East Coast.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/1029/ ... N.C.-coast

[westegg]

That's sad. I recall visiting this boat in 1972 when it was docked in Florida.

[Frederica]

According to this obit, the crewman who died was related to Fletcher Christian.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... edia-.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

[Brooksie]

If she was related to anyone from Pitcairn Island, she might have been. Most of the islanders are descended from the original mutineers, and there are Christian descendants among them. Pitcairn is a very strange little place.

By the way, though Errol Flynn also claimed he was a descendant, he definitely wasn't.

[s.w.a.c.]

A very sad day in our neck of the woods, for the loss of life as well as the fact that this Bounty was the work of local craftsmen in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, about an hour's drive from where I'm sitting, and its construction has been a point of pride in the town since it launched from there in 1960.

[daveboz]

If she was related to anyone from Pitcairn Island, she might have been. Most of the islanders are descended from the original mutineers, and there are Christian descendants among them. Pitcairn is a very strange little place.

By the way, though Errol Flynn also claimed he was a descendant, he definitely wasn't.

=====================

What is your source for this assertion?

In MY WICKED, WICKED WAYS, Flynn writes:

"My mother's people were seafaring folk. She had an ancestor named Midshipman Young. He was the chief aide of Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty, and had accompanied Christian to Pitcairn Island. Richmond Young captured a sword from Captain Bligh and this sword remained in my mother's family. It was handed down and the sword landed in our house in Tasmania where as a small boy I played with it. The tip came through the scabbard, and writing was engraved on the handle. My father ultimately gave this souvenir to the Naval and Military Club at Hobart where it still hangs on a wall. I could choke him for giving it away."

[Brooksie]

It's publicity baloney. If it had been true, it would have figured highly in publicity for In The Wake of the Bounty (1933), in which Flynn got his big break playing the role of Fletcher Christian. I've studied the publicity for that picture closely; the story does not come up once, and in fact doesn't even make its first appearance until the later 30s, after Flynn had become successful in Hollywood. He certainly wouldn't be the first or last star whose studio publicity department added some romantic flourishes to his background, or to expound the flourishes himself.

By the way, I don't know if it's by coincidence, but TCM is playing a short about the 1962 ship in the early hours of tomorrow morning - http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/400223/H ... ls-Again-/.

[daveboz]

[quote="Brooksie"]It's publicity baloney. If it had been true, it would have figured highly in publicity for In The Wake of the Bounty (1933), in which Flynn got his big break playing the role of Fletcher Christian. I've studied the publicity for that picture closely; the story does not come up once, and in fact doesn't even make its first appearance until the later 30s, after Flynn had become successful in Hollywood. He certainly wouldn't be the first or last star whose studio publicity department added some romantic flourishes to his background, or to expound the flourishes himself.

===================

"Publicity baloney" is not the subject. You said that Flynn made the claim himself. I take it you have no evidence for this, then.

[Brooksie]

I'm sorry - I misread. I thought you were saying that Flynn DID claim that he was an ancestor, when he was actually dispelling the myth. My bad.

[daveboz]

I'm sorry - I misread. I thought you were saying that Flynn DID claim that he was an ancestor, when he was actually dispelling the myth. My bad.

=======================

Thanks. I just wanted to know if I'd missed anything. I've read all the main books on Flynn, and many lesser efforts, and it's not always easy to determine what is true and what is piffle. And Flynn is partly to blame here, as writers like John Hammond Moore have shown. But character assassins like the late Charles Higham have done lots of damage to Flynn's reputation (or tried — his credibility is in tatters thanks to the late Tony Thomas and William Donati), and setting the record straight is only fair play.

Regarding the replica Bounty, it visited Vancouver in 1990 and I got lots of photos. Perhaps I'll post a couple, if it's not off-topic. Cheers!

[All Darc]

Sad news...

[daveboz]

Here's the replica Bounty in Vancouver 14 August 1990 — shot through black gauze — a silent-era technique.