The sinking of the replica ship Bounty

Relplica of the HMS BOUNTY at Halifax “Tall Ships” 2012 (The Loftsman Collection)

For tales of the original HMS BOUNTY

The US NTSB has released its report into the Sinking of the Bounty

 

A captain's "reckless decision to sail into the well-forecasted path of Hurricane Sandy" was the probable cause of the sinking of a ship off the North Carolina coast in October 2012, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report released today. The captain and one crewmember died in the accident. Three other crewmembers were seriously injured

The Challenges of Command This book explores the ways that the Edwardian naval arms race forced the Royal Navy to address deep-seated structural problems caused by rapidly changing technology. It charts how an institution organised for three hundred years around sailing ships, faced the challenge of steel and steam, and what that meant for an officer class recruited largely on the basis of its social class rather than technical expertise.

 

The 16-page report details how a mostly inexperienced crew - some injured from falls, others seasick and fatigued from the constant thrashing of 30-foot seas - struggled for many hours to keep the ships engines running and bilge pumps operating so the seawater filling the vessel would not overtake it.
In the early morning hours of October 29, 2012, about 110 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., the Bounty heeled sharply to the starboard side after taking on more than 10 feet of water in the final hours of a three and a half day voyage that the NTSB said, "should never have been attempted."
Despite hurricane winds gusting upwards of 100 mph, the U.S. Coast Guard was able to rescue all but two of the Bounty's 16 crewmembers by hoisting them from the sea into three Jayhawk helicopters in the midst of the storm. The body of one crewmember was found, still in a protective immersion suit, about 10 hours after rescue operations had commenced. The captain was presumed lost at sea; his body was never recovered.

The Way of a Ship When, as a young man in the 1880s, Benjamin Lundy signed up for duty aboard a square-rigged commercial sailing vessel, he began a journey more exciting, and more terrifying, than he could have ever imagined: a treacherous, white-knuckle passage around that notorious "graveyard of ships," Cape Horn. A century later, Derek Lundy, author of the bestselling Godforsaken Sea and an accomplished amateur seaman himself, set out to recount his forebear's journey. The Way of a Ship is a mesmerizing account of life on board a square-rigger, a remarkable reconstruction of a harrowing voyage through the most dangerous waters. Derek Lundy's masterful account evokes the excitement, romance, and brutality of a bygone era -- "a fantastic ride through one of the greatest moments in the history of adventure" ( Seattle Times ).