On a lighter not, I have been getting record traffic to my blog today. I couldn't guess why until I realized that most of the hits were on the post I wrote about the day in 2010 that HMS Bounty sailed past my house.
But personally, I think it's bordering on reckless & reprehensible irresponsibility to send these historical replicas to sea. They should be in museums. They're not even replicas at all, as a matter of fact, because they have engines in them! WTF is the point of even untying their docklines?
Just how seaworthy do these replicas tend to be? Obviously human life is, or should be, more valuable and more care needs to be taken by ship owners than in past centuries. The Bounty replica was fifty years old and I wonder whether it was really up for hurricane duty.
It reminds me of that book "Total loss" which is a set of true stories that in each case ends up with the boat going down - a sobering read.
All too often its a combination of factors and balancing risks. So there are risks in boats being at shore (as Adam has found) and often the best solution is to be at sea.
However that judgement might well depend upon the assumption that the pumps will work and there is no major leak.
If a leak starts *and* the pumps fail then you go from safe to at risk very quickly, and it could be that's what happened here.
I'd be sorry if all replica ships stayed in museums and aren't sailed and am hoping the Bounty can be re-built.
But there is another Bounty replica still n existence. It was used in the 1984 Mel Gibson Bounty movie. For many years it was in Sydney Harbor and I sailed on it, as a tourist, there. It is now in Hong Kong.
By the way, the woman who died was a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian.
8 comments:
Sad news in that 2 of the crew are still missing.
On a lighter not, I have been getting record traffic to my blog today. I couldn't guess why until I realized that most of the hits were on the post I wrote about the day in 2010 that HMS Bounty sailed past my house.
Very sad to hear about this missing captain and crew, Robin and Claudene.
Two more tragedies from Sandy :(
Regret the loss of life of course.
But personally, I think it's bordering on reckless & reprehensible irresponsibility to send these historical replicas to sea. They should be in museums. They're not even replicas at all, as a matter of fact, because they have engines in them! WTF is the point of even untying their docklines?
Just how seaworthy do these replicas tend to be? Obviously human life is, or should be, more valuable and more care needs to be taken by ship owners than in past centuries. The Bounty replica was fifty years old and I wonder whether it was really up for hurricane duty.
Apparently, this 'replica' was built to be a seaworthy ship and not just a movie prop. She was last overhauled at a real boatyard in Maine in 2007.
First reports are that she was in the middle of a long-distance delivery down the east coast and may not have been overwhelmed by sailing conditions.
It sounds like engine failure stopped the pumps, which couldn't keep up with the water that some large wooden ships take on in storm conditions.
It reminds me of that book "Total loss" which is a set of true stories that in each case ends up with the boat going down - a sobering read.
All too often its a combination of factors and balancing risks. So there are risks in boats being at shore (as Adam has found) and often the best solution is to be at sea.
However that judgement might well depend upon the assumption that the pumps will work and there is no major leak.
If a leak starts *and* the pumps fail then you go from safe to at risk very quickly, and it could be that's what happened here.
I'd be sorry if all replica ships stayed in museums and aren't sailed and am hoping the Bounty can be re-built.
However lost crew can't be replaced :(
Sad loss of human life and vessel.
But there is another Bounty replica still n existence. It was used in the 1984 Mel Gibson Bounty movie. For many years it was in Sydney Harbor and I sailed on it, as a tourist, there. It is now in Hong Kong.
By the way, the woman who died was a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian.
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