On October 29, 2012 the Bounty and her crew were sailing
from New London Connecticut to St Petersburg Florida for what would have been
her final visit to the Pier in St Pete. During Hurricane Sandy, the crew was
forced to abandon ship and the Bounty sank. It is with sadness in our hearts
that 2 of the 16 crew members did not make it. Captain Robin Walbridge and
Claudene Christian will forever be in our hearts. 14 of the crew were rescued
and have been reunited with their families. We thank the USCG and the Red Cross
for all of their help during the tragedy. We will forever be grateful.
This famous replica of the original Bounty was launched in 1961,
commissioned by MGM for their 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. More recently she
starred in,
amongst numerous others, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
She was built from the original ship's drawings still on file in the British Admiralty archives.
She was constructed in the traditional manner at Smith and Ruhland Shipyard in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. However, all the dimensions were increased by approximately one third to accommodate the large 70 mm cameras used. Though the ship was scheduled to be burned at the end of the film, Marlon Brando threatened to walk off the set, so MGM kept this vessel in service. In recent years she
had been almost completely rebuilt.
