HMS Bounty Returns to the Sea in Bligh's 220 Year-Old Footsteps
Corporations Invited to participate in Historic Voyage
HMS Bounty, famous for the 1789 mutiny between Captain Bligh and Master Mate Fletcher Christian in the South Pacific continues to make history. Re-created in 1960 by MGM for the 1962 movie, Mutiny on the Bounty, the 46-year old, three-masted sailing ship will again hit the high seas to replicate her namesake's journey.
In 1787, Lieutenant William Bligh and his crew sailed the newly-commissioned His Majesty's Armed Vessel (HMAV) Bounty out of Spithead, England on course to the Pacific Island of Otaheite (Tahiti) to procure breadfruits for transplantation in the West Indies. After almost ten months on board, an arduous passage, and six months in Tahiti to await the breadfruit growing season, the crew mutinied to remain rather than return to England and a life of servitude at sea.
Two hundred and twenty years later, the modern Bounty will also embark from Spithead with the same destination. This is an exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for would-be sailors and corporations alike. It's a chance to be a part of living history, states Margaret Ramsey, Voyage Director, and Executive Director of The HMS Bounty Organization LLC.
While built as a movie stage and background set to tell the story of the most famous ocean voyage of all time, MGM also built a ship designed for global travel as filming was conducted in the South Pacific. Originally built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, today's Bounty has spent the last six months in Boothbay Harbor Shipyard, Boothbay Harbor, Maine in preparation for the long journey. Set to launch off the rails in April, Bounty will first sail across the Atlantic for an all-England port tour before setting sail for Tahiti. Bounty will arrive in Tahiti in time for the 220th anniversary of Bounty's first arrival in October 1788.