BACKGROUND STORY - HMS BOUNTY
Following In a Glorious Tradition... a Grand Send-Off
As she did for the film premiere in 1962, HMS Bounty will precede her voyage to Tahiti and Pitcairn with an elaborate promotional tour, stopping at several major English ports before heading out to sea.
During the original promotion for MGM, one thing became clear even before Bounty reached her first port: people love this ship, and are fascinated with her story. At every stop, docks were brimming with the curious and devoted, all waiting to see the living legacy of one of history's most epic human events. Many gasped, some wept, and all cheered her arrival, trying to get a better view and clamoring to go aboard when she docked.
More than four decades later, the interest and enthusiasm concerning Bounty's upcoming promotional tour and subsequent voyage are just as fervid. As is the desire across both Tahiti and Pitcairn Island for the ship's return.
Each port will represent a major sales and marketing opportunity for Bounty's sponsorship partners, including significant local, regional, and global media exposure. Those supporters who do sail with HMS Bounty will also benefit from corporate image enhancement by being part of such an historic and educational venture.
Once Bounty departs England, she'll head into the Atlantic, following virtually every 'step' of the original vessel's journey to Tahiti. This trip, the ship and crew will be spared the severe weather that thwarted Bligh from getting around Cape Horn for more than a month, and head straight for the southern tip of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. She'll stop one more time in New Zealand before arriving in Tahiti. Then on to meet the descendants of Fletcher Christian and those who landed with him on Pitcairn Island, and again 'visit' the spirit of her predecessor.
The Most Famous Mutiny Of All Time - Blame It On Paradise
Once you have seen paradise, how do you go back to servitude? After all, what better way to describe paradise than Tahiti? And that's what the mutineers asked themselves. Of course, it would be simplistic and wrong to 'blame' the world's most infamous mutiny at sea on Tahiti. To begin with, no one from the island ever invited the British - or any Europeans, for that matter - to sail there. And certainly there are many other factors that led to the uprising on board HMAV Bounty in 1788. Possibly foremost of them could be that it truly was only a matter of time.
This was evident even before the journey's start. Due to strong winds and severe weather, the Bounty was unable to get down the English Channel. After finally arriving in Spithead on November 4th, 1787, the ship delayed three more weeks in port. An angry Captain Bligh wrote of his feelings to Duncan Campbell, a West Indies trader, and the former owner of the Bounty when she was known as Bethia.
"If there is any punishment that ought to be inflicted on a set of men for neglect, I'm sure it ought to be on the Admiralty for my three weeks' detention at this place during a fine fair wind which carried all outward bound ships clear of the Channel but me, who wanted it most. This has made my task a very arduous one indeed if I am to round Cape Horn..."
The words were indeed prophetic, as his departure caused the ship to arrive at the Cape when winter storm season was already in progress. For about a month, Bligh attempted passage around the Cape, but was continually forced back. With most of the crew exhausted, and becoming increasingly disgruntled, he reluctantly turned around and made way for the Cape of Good Hope. The time this setback would further complicate matters for Bligh later on.
Time Again Not On Their Side
Ten more months and some 27,000 miles later, HMAV Bounty at last arrives in Tahiti's Matavai Bay on October 26, 1788. While ecstatic about finally reaching their tropical destination, one can only imagine Bligh's thoughts upon hearing the breadfruit were not yet able to make the journey.
It seems their late arrival brought them to Tahiti at a time when the breadfruits were in a 'dormant period', during which they would not survive transplantation. It would mean another six months before Bounty could continue its mission to the West Indies...six months for his crew to enjoy the bountiful pleasures of paradise.
When they were finally ready, the men loaded more than 1,100 young breadfruit plants into Bounty's great cabin, and set sail for Jamaica on April 4, 1789. Bligh had long been aware of the 'change' in his crew, and believed that once on the seas again, he would be able to re-institute discipline and restore order. A little over three weeks later, he would be proven wrong.
"I am now unhappily to relate one of he most atrocious acts of piracy ever committed," Bligh would later write concerning the events of early morning on April 28, 1789. "Just before sun-rising, Mr. Christian, with the master at arms, gunner's mate, and Thomas Burket, seaman, came into my cabin while I was asleep, and seizing me, tied my hands with a cord behind my back and threatened me with instant death, if I spoke or made the least sound...I, however, call so loud as to alarm everyone; but they had already secured the officers who were not of their party...I was hauled out of bed and forced on deck in my shirt..." And so began the most famous mutiny of all time.
It was off the tiny island of Torfua that Fletcher Christian, whom Bligh had made second-in-command soon after the ship left England, took control of HMAV Bounty with his fellow mutineers. Along with 18 of his men, Bligh was lowered into a boat just 23 feet long. Their combined weight brought the small craft within seven inches of the waterline. The mutineers had tasted paradise, and no longer had a palette for life at sea. As the Bounty sailed away from Bligh and his followers, those on board reportedly threw many of the breadfruit plants at their former captain, and shouted "Huzza for Otaheite!" (Hurrah For Tahiti).
The Greatest Feat of Navigation in Naval History at That Time
However you may feel about Captain William Bligh, one thing is indisputable: he was an exceptional seaman. When he and his loyal followers were cast adrift, Bligh's former crew gave them scant little to go on: some bread and water, a little pork, four cutlasses (swords), a compass, and a quadrant (a small instrument with a movable sighting mechanism used to measure the angles and altitudes of stars).
With just this, Bligh did the virtually impossible: sailed 3,618 nautical miles to reach the port of Timor in the Dutch East Indies in 41 days, with the loss of only a single passenger (upon attempting to procure food and water on a small uncharted island, unfriendly natives stoned one of the seaman to death). To this day, it is considered the most incredible open boat voyage in the chronicles of the sea.
When he returned to England, Bligh was court-martialed and absolved from blame for the loss of HMAV Bounty. He was, however, reprimanded for excessive cruelty, and new rules in treatment of crewmen were later instituted as a result of the mutiny. Of the 17 men who made it to Timor with Bligh, five died shortly after reaching port; one died in a shipwreck on the return trip to England; and the remaining 11 made it back home safely.
Following his absolution by the English Admiralty, Bligh returned to England, where he was soon after given command of the ship Providence. On his first voyage since the mutiny, he successfully accomplished his mission to transplant breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies. He was later appointed governor of New South Wales, whose residents obviously weren't much fonder of Bligh than the Bounty mutineers: they deposed him during an armed insurrection. He went back to England, became a Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy, and died in 1817.
Anything But Paradise for the Mutineers
With Bligh and his supporters gone, Fletcher Christian led his band of mutineers back to Tahiti, where 16 elected to remain. Fearing the retribution of the English Navy, Christian decided it was not safe to stay. He was right.
Certainly, the British Admiralty could not condone mutiny on one of its ships. So, roughly one-and-a-half years later, they sent the frigate Pandora to Tahiti. All of those involved - except two who had died during that time -were captured. On its return trip, the Pandora struck the Great Barrier Reef and was wrecked, killing four of the mutineers and several seamen as well. The survivors escaped in lifeboats, and made it back to England. The 10 remaining mutineers were tried, and six were found guilty, while four were acquitted. Three of the six charged were later pardoned. On October 29, 1792 - in full view of throngs of spectators gathered on the Portsmouth shore and afloat on small watercraft - with sailors and officers watching from the HMS Brunswick, the remaining three were hanged.
Of course, they failed to find Christian and his followers. Eight of the mutineers had opted to remain with him, and, together with six native Tahitian men, 12 women, and a little girl, left Tahiti and sailed into history. For 18 years, their whereabouts remained unknown. Then, in 1808, the American ship Topaz stopped at lonely Pitcairn Island, a small stretch of rock some 1,300 miles southeast of the paradise the mutineers sailed from, and the mystery was solved.
And Then There Was One...
Before returning to Tahiti, Fletcher and his men attempted to settle on the island of Tubuai some 400 miles to the south. The natives there were less than friendly, however, and the mutineers found themselves perpetually at war with them. His crew angrily demanded they sail back to Tahiti.
Of course, they could not remain there, so with several accompanying him, he set off for a hospitable, yet uninhabited island where they could live happily without fear of being found. From an account by Captain Phillip Carteret on his voyage from 1766-69, he read of a small island, uncharted except for Carteret's listing of latitude and longitude, discovered by a young seaman who was the son of an American marine major who commanded the British Marines at Concord when the first shot of the American War of Independence was fired. The major's name was John Pitcairn. So that's where Fletcher steered the Bounty.
Unfortunately, Carteret had miscalculated the longitude by more than three degrees, resulting in an error of some 178 degrees to the west of the island's true position. This caused Christian to search for weeks in vain; in fact, he nearly had another mutiny on his hands by the time they sighted lonely Pitcairn off Bounty's bow in the early days of 1790.
After bringing all the supplies, plants, and livestock on land, the crew stripped Bounty of whatever could be used, ran her ashore, and burned her on January 23rd of that year. Any joy the island's new inhabitants felt was short-lived.
Christian divided the land into nine portions among his crew and himself, leaving none for the Tahitian men who had sailed with him. The resentment they felt smoldered, and was later to erupt violently.
After two years of relative peace, the wife of mutineer John Williams died after falling off a cliff. Williams decided to take a wife of one of the Tahitians, which would not be tolerated. During the next couple of years, a series of bloody battles led to several violent deaths. Fletcher Christian himself was reportedly shot to death as he worked in his field. Some still believe to this day that he managed to escape the island and return to England, although this was never proven. However, his actual body was never recovered on Pitcairn, either, although there is a gravestone supposedly marking his final resting place. Another mutineer perished when, after drinking an excess of 'home-distilled' alcohol, he threw himself into the sea. By the time Captain Matthew Folger of the Topaz came to the island, only one mutineer, a seaman remained to tell the tale of the Bounty. John Adams, whose real name was Alexander Smith, assumed the pseudonym as another way to hide from retribution. The descendants of the mutineers and their Tahitian companions still reside on Pitcairn today.
You Can't Keep A Great Ship Down
The (current) Bounty's initial re-fit came soon after Robert Hansen purchased her in February of 2001. From her former home in Fall River, Massachusetts, Mr. Hansen, along with the Captain, Robin Walbridge, had what became the daunting task of finding a shipyard with the size and resources to do the necessary repairs. The first two attempts at finding a suitable yard proved unsuccessful for one reason or another. Finally, the two worked out an arrangement with Sample's Shipyard in Maine. However, getting Bounty there from Fall River turned out to be an adventure in and of itself.
The Friday prior to its scheduled departure for Maine, the ship was being kept afloat by a cadre of pumps. Going from bad to much worse, that night there was an accident in Fall River that brought down an electrical pole, resulting in a power outage. Like a beating heart that just gives out, the pumps keeping Bounty alive fell silent.
"The man hired to watch the boat called me at about 10:00pm, frantic, explaining we'd lost power and Bounty was sinking," Robert Hansen recalls. "Needless to say, we had to move fast."
Fast thinking and quick action saved her from going down. "We were able to get some big emergency pumps on board to keep up with the leaking," says Hansen. "But it was very close. Bounty had almost six feet of water in her, and was within inches of going down."
The plan had been for the ship to motor up to Maine for re-fitting under its own power, but the leaking was too severe. After visits from the local Coast Guard unit, police, and the fire department, Robert Hansen received a letter from the Fall River Port Captain that forbids them to leave.
"We had to come up with a whole new plan," explains Hansen. "We ended up having to tow her up there with all kinds of emergency pumping... six huge diesel pumps with enough pumping capacity to handle a quarter-of-a-million gallons an hour. The final tow cost was around $15,000. Actually, we thought it would be a lot more, because the tow ship estimated it would take around 60 hours, as nobody knew for sure how well she'd hold together. But, as it turned out, once she started moving, she stopped leaking. We wound up running on one pump, on idle speed. Once in motion, she actually swelled up better and stopped leaking, and we made it to Booth Bay Harbor some 20 hours earlier than anticipated".
Upon arrival, the ship was soon put up on the rails. The plan had been solely to finish what had been started on the hull; a portion of it had already been re-done during its time at Fall River. But once they pulled it out of the water it was painfully clear that practically everything from the waterline on down had to replaced.
So Bounty received a complete 'down-under' overhaul, including a brand new bottom,
virtually all new frames, new running gear, engines, drives, props, fuel and water tanks...everything. Captain Robin Walbridge puts it simply, "It was a mammoth job." Roughly one year later, Bounty was back in the able hands of Hansen and Walbridge, and ready for new adventures.
"Pirated" By Disney
As noted earlier, Bounty had spent some time before the camera during her 'courtship' to Ted Turner, most notably Treasure Island and the pirate-comedy Yellowbeard. But in 2005, she received a call to play a featured role in the highly-anticipated sequel Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest. The film was being produced by Disney, and would require Bounty to be re-fitted again, this time to take on the guise of a genuine 18th-century British vessel.
They had Bounty brought down to Bayou-La -Batre, Alabama, in the winter of 2005, to the same shipyard where the Black Pearl herself was built. The site was chosen both for its highly-skilled crews and sheer size. As Captain Walbridge observed, "They could do everything there, and on three ships at once."
For her new role, Bounty had to have all her standing rigging - rigging which holds up the mast - replaced and changed out, including all the lower standing rigging. For the non-nautical, Captain Walbridge explains that this is what appears to be lines on the ship that don't move. Additionally, her running rigging - the lines used to haul in the sails and brace the arch - had to be completely replaced as well.
With Disney footing the bill and the talents at the Alabama shipyard, the 'transformation' was completed in months. To anyone who saw her, Bounty now appeared to be an authentic merchant ship from the 1700's. However, the materials employed were definitely late-20th century. "The rigging looks like rope, but it's actually a Kevlar-core synthetic," Captain Walbridge points out. "It's far more solid and a lot stronger than what the ships of old had to use."
Lastly, but certainly not least, she also was equipped with a couple of new spars, and new sails (nine altogether). Re-rigged, and now sporting a genuine merchant-ship countenance, Bounty performed admirably before the Disney cameras. When filming was over, the plan was for her to take a trip up the Mississippi. Katrina changed all that.
The Dream Of Tahiti Reappears
The devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina made it impossible to embark North on the Mississippi River. As a result, Bounty instead headed for St. Petersburg, Florida and proceeded on a tour up the east coast.
When that concluded, the ship was without plans, as the Mississippi trip would have taken considerably longer. However, the cancellation also opened other 'waterways' for the classic tall ship. It meant there was time to put Bounty in for a third re-fitting, which would completely finish her 'overhaul'...and it made the 'ethereal' concept of a return voyage to Tahiti a feasible reality. So it was back to Booth Bay Harbor, Maine.
The final re-fitting operation would be an expansive one, from the water line up, and expensive as well. Basically, Bounty would receive a new deck - with new planks and frames - and a completely re-designed, re-built interior. Upon completion, it will be much more passenger- and crew-friendly.
As of October 2006, the Bounty is approximately half-way through its final re-fitting, with an expected launch date of April, 2007. When that's done, the work is far from over, though, according to Captain Walbridge. The interior re-fitting, which can't really begin until the deck is back in place (the last task taken on by the shipyard crew) and the ship's in the water, will take months by itself.
"Lots of little things, like wiring, come after the exterior's finished," notes Captain Walbridge. Somewhere between two-to-six months after she's launched, she'll be ready for her heralded ocean voyage to Tahiti. The process is akin to building a house: once the roof and walls are up, there's still a tremendous amount of detail work that's needed before it can be lived in. It's painfully slow going, but she's definitely worth it."
When she's completely done, sometime in mid-2007, she'll be ready for her exciting promotional tour preceding her historic voyage to Tahiti and Pitcairn Island. Though Captain Walbridge can't account for the whereabouts of the nail Luis Marden nailed into Bounty's hull before the 1962 trip - the one he brought up from the waters off Pitcairn Island where the original Bounty sank - at least one will be taking the journey when Bounty sails next year. And her famous English lady, Bethia will again be on her bow.
It's important to note that there are a number of people responsible for the Bounty being around to make this 220th celebratory voyage. First, of course, is Marlon Brando, without whose stubbornness and reverence for the ship, it would have been burned after the 1962 epic was done filming.
It's essential for people to know that without owner Robert Hansen, the ship would probably have sank or been dismantled. While some potential buyers wanted to make her into a restaurant or tourist shop, Mr. Hansen wanted her to be what she was built to be: a sailing vessel. His determination - and a great deal of effort - have gotten Bounty back to her former glory, and ready to make history again.
While Mr. Hansen understandably takes a modest amount of credit for Bounty's continued existence, he offers thanks to a special group of those who preceded him. "The only reason Bounty is here today is because those craftsmen (in 1960) built her to be an ocean-bearing vessel," he states emphatically.
"No one is building ships like this anymore," he continues. "To construct this today, it would probably cost $10 million (USD) to do it...maybe more. And that's if you could find a yard that would do it at all.