BOUNTY replica 1962

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a wooden replica of the HMAS BOUNTY by Smith & Rhuland, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada for the film company Metro_Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., New York.
February 1960 keel laid down.
Launched as BOUNTY.
Tonnage 415 grt, 111 net, dim. 51.40 x 9.20 x 6.30m., length bpp. 33.60m
Powered by two auxiliary Caterpilar diesel engines,220 hp each, twin screws.
Full rigged, total sail area approx. 950 square meters.
Carried a figurehead of a woman in a riding costum.
Building cost US$700.000 dollars.

She was special built for the MCM’s movie “Mutiny on the Bounty.”
The ship was based on the original plans but to accommodate modern navigation equipment and auxiliary engines and film camera’s she was about 10 meter longer as the original ship. Also she carries on the mast 4 sail instead of the three the original ship carried. (The Aitutaki stamps depict the replica BOUNTY, which carried four sails.)
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 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. 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 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.
In 1993, Turner donated the ship to the Fall River Chamber Foundation, which established the Tall Ship Bounty Foundation to operate the ship as an educational venture. In February 2001, BOUNTY was purchased from the Foundation by the HMS Bounty Organization LLC.
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 9 August 2007, BOUNTY stopped at Derry, Northern Ireland. The ship had just completed a US$3 million restoration and was making a seven week UK tour prior to embarking on a world tour via South Africa and New Zealand to Pitcairn and Tahiti. The UK tour began with her arrival at the birthplace of mutiny leader Fletcher Christian in Maryport, Cumbria, at midday on Tuesday, 14 August 2007. The ship was about three days ahead of schedule which is why she sought out Derry for a 'quiet' stopover before completing the journey to Maryport. On 23 August 2007 the ship docked in Torquay, Devon, for several days.
On Saturday 12 September 2009, the ship was berthed at Custom House Quay in Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland, as part of a tour of several UK ports. At about 04:10 BST thieves targeted the ship and stole a small sum of cash, several items of clothing with BOUNTY 's insignia, a survival suit, a book, a life ring and an American flag. The items were later recovered nearby.
BOUNTY’s owners had tried, unsuccessfully, to sell the vessel since 2010. The ship was for sale as of 2012 for US$4.6 million.
In summer 2012, the ship was stationed in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She took part in OpSail 2012 and, in August 2012, was in Halifax. In September and October, 2012, BOUNTY was in drydock in Boothbay Harbor for maintenance. She was launched from the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard on 22 October 2012.
On October 25, 2012, the vessel left New London, Connecticut heading for St. Petersburg, Florida, initially going on an easterly course to avoid Hurricane Sandy. On 29 October 2012 at 03:54 EDT, the ship's owner called the United States Coast Guard for help during the hurricane after she lost contact with the ship's master. The ship's master had reported she was taking on water off the coast of North Carolina, about 160 miles (260 km) from the storm, and the crew were preparing to abandon ship. There were sixteen people aboard. Vice Admiral Parker, USCG, reported the ship had sunk and fourteen people had been rescued from liferafts by two rescue helicopters. The storm had washed the captain and two crew overboard—one of the latter had made it to a liferaft, but the other two were missing. They wore orange survival suits complete with strobe lights, thereby giving rescuers some hope of finding them alive. Claudene Christian, one of the two missing crewmembers and a descendant of the original BOUNTY 's 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. Raised in Montpelier, Vermont, Walbridge later moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. He was a field mechanic on houseboats who worked his way up to obtaining a 1600 ton license in 1995, when he began working as a crew member of the BOUNTY replica. Walbridge went missing from the helm while trying to save the replica sailing ship when the ship sank during Hurricane Sandy. 16 crew members jumped overboard and 14 were rescued after the vessel got caught in hurricane storms off the coast of Hatteras, North Carolina. One crew member, Claudene Christian, was pulled from the ocean unresponsive and later pronounced dead. 14 of the 15 rescued were retrieved by U.S. Coast Guard helicopters from lifeboats with canopies. Walbridge was lost when the ship sank during Hurricane Sandy.
Aitutaki 1974 1c/5c sg114/16, scott94/6 10c/25c sg123/25, scottC1-3
The Bounty's last reported position was 33 54N 73 50W

Wikipedia

February 10, 2014
WASHINGTON - 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.

On the evening of October 25, 2012, a day after a closely watched developing
storm had reached hurricane strength, the 108-foot-long tall wooden ship,
the Bounty, set sail from New London, Conn., for St. Petersburg, Fla., into
the forecasted path of Superstorm Sandy. The 52-year-old vessel, a replica
of the original 18th Century British Admiralty ship of the same name, was
built for MGM Studios for the 1962 movie, "Mutiny on the Bounty."

Prior to setting off from New London, some of the crewmembers had expressed
their concerns to the captain that sailing into a severe storm could put all
of them and the ship at risk. The captain assured the crew that the Bounty
could handle the rough seas and that the voyage would be a success. Just a
month earlier, in an interview with a Maine TV station, the captain said
that the Bounty "chased hurricanes," and by getting close to the eye of the
storm, sailors could use hurricane winds to their advantage.

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.

"Although this wooden ship was modeled after an 18th century vessel, the
Captain had access to 21st century hurricane modeling tools that predicted
the path and severity of Hurricane Sandy," said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P.
Hersman. "The Bounty's crew was put into an extraordinarily hazardous
situation through decisions that by any measure didn't prioritize safety."

Prior to setting to sea, the Bounty had been in a Maine shipyard for
maintenance and repairs, most of which was accomplished by a crew with
little experience in such specialized work. One of their tasks was to caulk
and reseam a wooden hull, which had known areas of rot, with compounds
supplied by the captain, including a silicone sealant marketed for household
use.

The entity that owned and operated the ship, HMS Bounty Organization, LLC,
did nothing to dissuade the captain from sailing into known severe weather
conditions. The NTSB said that such a lack of effective safety oversight by
the vessel organization contributed to the sinking.

The entire report is available at
http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2014/MAB1403.pdf

Pitcairn Island 2014 $2.10 sg?, scott?

[aukepalmhof]

When Her Majesty’s Armed Vessel BOUNTY left England in 1787, no one could possibly believe the incredible interest her story would generate for the following 225 years. Followers of the BOUNTY and the subsequent habitation of Pitcairn have carried out a “romance” with this amazing story.

Life for the BOUNTY began as a coastal trader named BETHIA, which underwent a refit for a voyage to collect breadfruit seedlings to deliver to the West Indies. The BETHIA was a three-masted, fully-rigged, snub-nosed ship of only 215 tons. On the suggestion of Sir Joseph Banks, she was renamed BOUNTY. Under her new look and new name, Her Majesty’s Armed Vessel set sail with a complement of 46 officers and crew led by Lieutenant William Bligh. After an arduous voyage the Bounty finally reached Tahiti on October 26th, 1788. The crew was glad for the respite on the tropical island, collecting and growing a thousand breadfruit plants. Bligh allowed the crew to live ashore where they became familiar with the customs and culture, and the lovely Tahitian women. During the five months many of the crew formed a deep attachment to the island and the fine-looking inhabitants, leading Fletcher Christian to marry one of them, a Tahitian beauty named Maimiti.

As Bligh recorded in the captain’s log:
The Women are handsome ... and have sufficient delicacy to make them admired and beloved. The chiefs have taken such a liking to our People that they have rather encouraged their stay among them than otherwise, and even made promises of large possessions. Under these and many other attendant circumstances equally desirable it is therefore now not to be Wondered at ... that a Set of Sailors led by Officers and void of connections ... should be governed by such powerful inducement ... to fix themselves in the midst of plenty in the finest Island in the World where they need not labour, and where the alurements of disipation are more than equal to anything that can be conceived.

The two replicas sailing today are possibly the most-photographed of the tall ships. The USA BOUNTY replica was built in 1960 for MGM studios' Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando. Since then, she has starred in several feature-length films,TV shows and historical documentaries. The studios commissioned the ship to be built using the original ship's drawings from the British admiralty archives. After filming and a worldwide promotional tour, MGM berthed the ship in St. Petersburg as a permanent tourist attraction. In 1986 Ted Turner acquired the MGM film library and the BOUNTY with it. He donated the ship to the Fall River Chamber Foundation, which established the Tall Ship Bounty Foundation to operate the ship as an educational venture. In February of 2001 the H.M.S. BOUNTY was purchased from the Foundation by the HMS Bounty Organisation LLC. The second BOUNTY is based in Hong Kong for tourism purposes and was built in 1978/9 for the movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" starring Mel Gibson, and Anthony Hopkins at a cost of US$5M. She is a fully rigged 3-masted tall ship with an overall length of 42 metres and a displacement of 400 tonnes. The great timber masts, 35 metres in height, carry 18km of rope and she carries up to 19 sails, giving her an impressive 900 sq. metres of canvas.
This stamp issue captures some of those images that are at the heart of the Bounty saga.

Pitcairn Island 2012 $1.00/4.60 and M.S.sg?, scott? ( The 20c depict the HMAV BOUNTY replica 1978, which now sails from Hong Kong see index for her details.)
Guinea Bissau 2013 600 fca sg?, scott? (the stamp gives HMS BOUNTY but she had only three yards while the stamp shows a ship with four yards, so she must be the replica of 1962.)


http://www.stamps.gov.pn/