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Posted on 01/13/2013 7:02:16 AM PST by Dartman
January 13, 2013 — A formal hearing is planned as part of the investigation of the sinking of tall ship HMS Bounty, in which two lives were lost.
The United States Coast Guard has announced a formal hearing into the sinking of the tall ship HMS Bounty.
The nine-day hearing is scheduled to begin February 12 in Portsmouth, Virginia.
"The investigation will examine the facts and circumstances relating relating to the sinking of the vessel and will develop conclusions and recommendations to improve the safety and operations of similar vessels," the coast guard says.
Strong winds and rain from Hurricane Sandy in late October caused the Canadian-built ship to take on water.
Fourteen of the ship's 16 crew members were airlifted to safety, but the ship's 63-year-old captain, Robin Walbridge, was swept overboard.
Coast guard helicopters searched over 12,000 square nautical miles in a 90-day search for Walbridge without success.
Two other crew members were also swept overboard. One made it to a life raft, but another, 42-year-old Claudene Christian, was recovered unresponsive, and later died.
HMS Bounty was built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in 1960, for the 1962 film portrayal of the famous Mutiny on the Bounty.
Sighted storm, sailed into same
In modern times anyone who purposely heads into a hurricane in a wooden boat for a thrill is an idiot.
She had an interesting link to the original Bounty...
Claudene Christian, a fifth great-granddaughter of Fletcher Christian, who led the famous mutiny against Captain William Bligh on the HMS Bounty in 1789, perished today when the replica Bounty was damaged in Hurricane Sandy. Claudene was a member of the crew aboard the replica Bounty that was constructed for the 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty. She had always been interested in the ship because of her ancestry and joined the crew in May of this year.
Sounds like he was a very good captain, very thorough, very concerned for the welfare and safety of his crew, with one flaw, he actually enjoyed flirting with hurricanes, a “fast ride.”
He also believed, and not without reason, that a ship was safer at sea in a hurricane than docked. These biases were further encouraged by pressure from the owner to meet schedule. So, he sailed, but not without giving crew the option to decline before sailing.
He was boxed in, ultimately, with his choice being the shoals of Hatteras on the west and the worst of the storm to his east. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Had the engine not failed and generators not gotten swamped, maybe they would have made it.
Maybe.
If he’d have put into port at Hampton Roads, he’d be alive, Ms. Christian would be as well, and the HMS Bounty wouldn’t have joined so many others there beneath the Atlantic.
Second-guessing doesn’t do anything at this point, though. He did what he thought was best and paid with his life.
I have a vinyl copy of the music from MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962). There is a nice book with it that says the Bounty was built thirty feet longer than the original to allow for engines. It did not depend on wind.
From my limited Navy experiences, a ship is better able to ride out a storm at sea instead of cooped up in a port. There is little room to maneuver, and the terrific damage that the swells can cause at dock will stove in even steel-plated hulls. Ropes and lines can snap, or rip the bollards and cleats off or tear out the dock. I know the Navy puts all capable out of port, and moves others to open anchorages to keep them safer than at dockside.
While I'm sure that future planning for the Bounty figured into its movement, I'm also sure that the same action would have occurred had she been scheduled for a six-month stay. Ships belong at sea, not in port, especially at dangerous times.
To all- please ping me to Canadian topics.
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