HMS Bounty Sinking off NC Coast

[SuperiorDG]

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121029-hmsbounty-330a.photoblog600.jpg

Why the hell would they be out there in a sailing ship?

Updated at 10:45 a.m. ET: A search was under way Monday for two crew members of the stricken ship HMS Bounty, which sank off the coast of North Carolina, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Earlier Monday, two Coast Guard helicopters rescued 14 people from life rafts after they were forced to abandon ship.
They were flown to Air Station Elizabeth City in North Carolina where they were met by awaiting emergency medical services personnel, the Coast Guard said.
An aircraft was on the scene, searching for the two missing crew members, with a Jayhawk helicopter en route to assist.
"It appears that two crew members didn't make it onto the life rafts," Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Michael Patterson told NBC News. The Coast Guard was speaking with the rescued crew members to find out more details.


http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/29/14775512-14-rescued-2-missing-from-hms-bounty-off-nc-coast?lite

[dwalker460]

That will suck if they cant raise it, a real piece of history there.

EDIT- because it was in the movie guys! Back before everything was CG

[BPTactical]

More than likely set sail to try and get around it. Open water is the best place for a ship in a hurricane.
Sad to lose it, neat piece of maritime history.

[HoneyBadger]

As Bert said, a ship sitting in the harbor is going to get smashed to bits in a hurricane. It is almost always safer to get the ship out on open water where the waves are much longer and there is nothing to smash against. Very unfortunate to lose this beautiful ship.

[SuperiorDG]

These guys are nuts. I bet those guys in the water very thankful.\

FfvYEZ1IOAA

[sniper7]

pretty cool video of the rescue

very sad to see that ship go down, hopefully they can recover it and get it going again.

[cstone]

Brando should have bought the ship and kept it in Tahiti [LOL]

Sorry to see her go. Square riggers are beautiful when they run before the wind. Damn, I miss sailing [Rant2]

[TS12000]

The BBC on my phone said they found one of the two remaining guys

[hatidua]

Sunk off the Outer Banks, it won't be lonely on the bottom (a spot with hundreds of ships down there).

[SuperiorDG]

Sunk off the Outer Banks, it won't be lonely on the bottom (a spot with hundreds of ships down there).

"More than 1,000 ships have sunk in these waters since records began in 1526" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graveyard_of_the_Atlantic

Yea I dove on a few and flew a small plane along the coast and there are everywhere.

[Ah Pook]

These guys are nuts. I bet those guys in the water very thankful.\

FfvYEZ1IOAA
Jebus! I was getting sea sick just watching the video. [Eek2]

Kudos to the diver. It looked like he was being dropped into a cuisinart.

[firefighter238]

Sad pic from the USCG Jayhawk flight crew

[SuperiorDG]

Bounty crew member dies; search continues for captain

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Video:

Raw footage of the rescues. (Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City)


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(http://media.hamptonroads.com/cache/files/images/957301.jpg) 1 of 18 photos:

The HMS Bounty is shown submerged in the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012, about 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C. Of the 16-person crew, the Coast Guard rescued 14, but at least one woman is dead and the captain remains missing. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Tim Kuklewski | U.S. Coast Guard) View all 18 photos (http://media.hamptonroads.com/cache/files/images/957301.jpg) | Buy Pilot photos (http://pilot.mycapture.com/)





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Timeline of the rescue

8:45 p.m. Sunday: HMS Bounty’s owner notifies Coast Guard that vessel is taking on water
9 p.m.: Coast Guard receives emergency position indicating radio beacon alert from HMS Bounty
Midnight: Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircrew arrives on scene and establishes communication with the ship’s crew
4:30 a.m. Monday: The Bounty’s crew, wearing survival suits, abandons ship and boards life rafts
6:30 a.m.: Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews arrive on scene and begin rescues
10:15 a.m.: Fourteen Bounty crew members arrive at the Coast Guard Air Station in Elizabeth City, N.C., and are met by emergency medical services personnel
U.S. Coast Guard

Ship's timeline

1960: Built by Smith and Rhuland of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia 1962: Launched from Lunenburg
1962: Appears in the Marlon Brando film “Mutiny on the Bounty”
1986: Bought by media mogul Ted Turner
1993: Turner donates it to the Fall River Chamber of Commerce in Fall River, Mass.
2001: Sold to Long Island businessman Robert Hansen
2001: Ship takes on water, begins to sink at its berth in Fall River, Mass.
2001: Long Island-based HMS Bounty Organization buys the ship to use for educational programs
2006: Appears in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”
2006-07: Undergoes extensive renovations
2010: Reportedly listed for sale for more than $4 million
2012: Visits Norfolk in June for OpSail. Sinks off the coast of North Carolina on Oct. 29.
--The Chronicle Herald, Halifax


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By Aaron Applegate (http://hamptonroads.com/2007/10/aaron-applegate)
Dianna Cahn (http://hamptonroads.com/dcahn)
Jeff Hampton (http://hamptonroads.com/2007/10/jeff-hampton)
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 30, 2012 UPDATE, 11:18 a.m. Tuesday
The search is continuing for the Bounty's captain. Coast Guard officials say they are encouraged by the water temperature, 77 degrees this morning.
____
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C.
In 60-mph winds and 30-foot churning waters, the Coast Guard pulled 14 crew members of the tall ship Bounty out of battered life rafts to safety on the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.
Then, despite Hurricane Sandy's pummeling rains, search teams scoured the seas for two missing sailors - Robin Walbridge, the Bounty's longtime captain, and shipmate Claudene Christian - and found one of them.
Christian, 42, was not breathing when rescuers pulled her from the water, and the Coast Guard said she was unresponsive. Albemarle Hospital reported Monday night that she had died.
This morning, the search was continuing for Walbridge. Rescuers searched through the night for him. One cutter, the Elm, was at the scene and aircraft were searching even as it got dark Monday, Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jamie Frederick said. Another high-performance ship was en route.
Walbridge was wearing a survival suit that would keep him afloat and warm, and water temperatures were about 77 degrees this morning.
“We’re still hopeful,” said Capt. Joe Kelly, commanding officer of the Elizabeth City Coast Guard Air Station. “That 77 degrees is a factor.”
On Monday, the Coast Guard flew nine sorties, six with helicopter and three with C-130s, covering more than 1,300 square miles. Two cutters and a C-144 Ocean Sentry searched during the night.
Walbridge and Christian were in the process of getting aboard the life rafts when the ship rolled, throwing them overboard, Kelly said. At the scene winds have
fallen to about 40 mph with seas of 13 to 18 feet.
The replica ship was built in 1960 and traveled to Tahiti to film MGM Studio's "Mutiny on the Bounty," starring Marlon Brando and depicting the famed 1798 mutiny. The ship was supposed to be burned at the end of filming, but Brando threatened to pull his name from the film if the ship was destroyed, according to the ship's website. It was also featured in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
The ship, once a 180-foot, three-masted vessel, lay on its side in the ocean Monday, 90 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, a Coast Guard pilot said.
Monday's rescue was harrowing. The Bounty lost propulsion late Sunday and its generator failed, causing it to take on water. The ship's owner alerted the Coast Guard that it was in distress.
The Coast Guard sent a C-130 from Air Station Elizabeth City to establish contact and decided it was safer to wait until first light to send a rescue mission, Frederick said.
But water was coming in too quickly. By 4:30 a.m., the crew abandoned ship, loading onto the two lifeboats.
Walbridge, 63, Christian and a third crew member were washed overboard during the shift, Frederick said. The third crew member made it back to the lifeboats, but Walbridge and Christian were swept away.
The pilot struggled to steady the Coast Guard helicopter in high winds as he neared one of the life rafts.
Coast Guard rescue swimmer Daniel Todd plunged from the helicopter into the roiling waves and swam to the raft. For 45 minutes, he said, he battled the waves to send people up to the helicopter in a basket, one by one.
"It was like swimming in a washing machine," he said. "Those were the biggest sized waves I've ever been in and the most people I've hauled into the helo."
Word of the Bounty's distress spread quickly through the small community of tall ship fans and professional sailors who work the circuit. Messages started pouring in on the ship's Facebook page and website.
Former crew member Joseph O'Hara said he was exchanging texts and phone calls with land staff and others like himself across the country. O'Hara, a Norfolk resident who coaches swimming at Maury High School in the winter months and works ships like the Bounty seven months a year, said he just got off the Bounty earlier this month and was having difficulty believing it was gone.
"It's numbing," O'Hara said. "She handled steady and true. There were a number of times when we got the sails balanced right, when I could walk away from the helm for 15 minutes at a time without losing course."
Bert Rogers, executive director of Tall Ships America, said Bounty is popular on the tall ship circuit.
"She's got a great Hollywood story," he said. "She's a grand magnificent vessel and she presents well."
William Groeninger said he spent a summer sailing with Walbridge, who has captained the Bounty for the past 20 years, and gained firm respect for him.
"I would trust him with my life without question, anytime, anywhere," Groeninger commented on The Virginian-Pilot's online message board. "I watched him perform two heroic actions that summer: One saved a life and the other many potential injuries and significant damage to the ship."
"In both cases," he added, "there was no time to think, only time to act, and act he did."
But questions were raised Monday about the decision to sail during warnings of a powerful and unusual storm traveling up the East Coast. A Thursday post on the Bounty's Facebook page said the ship had left New London, Conn., on Thursday and was heading to St. Petersburg, Fla.
"Bounty will be sailing due East out to sea before heading South to avoid the brunt of Hurricane Sandy," the post said.
"They were staying in constant contact with the National Hurricane Center," Tracie Simonin, the director of the HMS Bounty Organization, told The Associated Press. "They were trying to make it around the storm."
The ship is homeported in Greenport, N.Y., and is owned by businessman Robert Hansen.
"She's a sailing ship, and she was heading to her winter port," Hansen said. "They were aware there was a hurricane. We've been through much worse than this. Something went catastrophically wrong with the generators, and we couldn't pump the water out."
But Jan Miles, longtime captain of the tall ship Pride of Baltimore II, said going to sea was not a decision he would have made.
"It wasn't like it was a surprise there was a hurricane," he said
"These things are too big for a slow boat to outmaneuver," he said. "Had I been asked what I thought Capt. Walbridge would have done in this instance, it wouldn't have been this."
On Saturday, the administrator of Bounty's Facebook page defended the decision to go to sea, writing in a post that the voyage was 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!"
Former crew members said they'd steered the Bounty and other ships like it through worse weather.
"It's gone through worse conditions and I've been through conditions like this," O'Hara said.
"It's more about luck than anything else," he said. "It's as much luck as skill."
Pilot writer Cindy Clayton and The Chronicle Herald of Halifax contributed to this report.

[SuperiorDG]

Coast Guard investigates Bounty sinking

Chief mate says captain did not heed warnings

Updated: Tuesday, 12 Feb 2013, 6:45 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 12 Feb 2013, 4:27 PM EST


Anne McNamara (http://www.wavy.com/dpp/about_us/personalities/anne-mcnamara-bio)

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) - The sinking of the HMS Bounty is the focus of a federal hearing in Portsmouth.
The tall ship capsized off the coast of Hatteras during Hurricane Sandy. Two crew members died, but 14 others were rescued by the Coast Guard.
The ship's chief mate testified at a Coast Guard hearing Tuesday, saying Captain Robin Walbridge did not heed warnings and made a conscious decision to navigate across the top of the storm.
"I said, 'I believe we should abandon ship,'" said John Svendsen, the Bounty's chief mate. "And, he said, 'No, I think we got a lot more time.'"

In the end, timing was the downfall of the HMS Bounty. Her voyage began in Boothbay Harbor, Maine and ended in the waters off Cape Hatteras.
Coast Guard investigators showed an interactive map in Tuesday's hearing that outlined the Bounty's track, showing where it met with hurricane force winds and rain.

Sandy proved to be stronger than the will of the 17-year captain who went down with the ship. Investigators confirm Captain Walbridge, once told a television station that he and the Bounty "chased hurricanes." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNDneMuO7-U%3E)
Investigators asked Svendsen if he believes the Bounty was chasing Hurricane Sandy.
"Not in my opinion," he said.

But Svendsen does not deny Walbridge was an adventurous man who did not heed repeated warnings to steer a different course. It was only in the Bounty's final minutes, when the first mate begged him to abandon ship, that Walbridge finally agreed. But, it was too late.

"When the ship rolled over, it threw everybody into the water," said Svendsen.

Svendsen testified he swam for three hours until a C-130 and Coast Guard personnel came to the rescue.

"I had a bruised and damaged face, neck trauma, broken bones in my hand and other arm injuries," said Svendsen. "I had chest and abdomen trauma and a twisted knee."
Svendsen also testified that Walbridge gave the crew the option to leave the ship at an earlier port, but they all decided to stay.
Testimony revealed the ship's generators failed and the fuel tank was punctured. The Bounty took on a significant amount of water and had pumps working continuously in up to 30-foot waves and 50 mph winds.

The purpose of this hearing is for Coast Guard investigators to determine exactly what happened, identify any misconduct and make recommendations to prevent similar events in the future.
The findings from Portsmouth will be submitted to the Department of Justice, as part of a much broader investigation.

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/portsmouth/coast-guard-investigates-bounty-sinking

[Ah Pook]

Looks like the Captain is being thrown under the Bounty bus.