The US NTSB released its report into the Sinking of the Bounty. The Bounty was Built in Lunenburg for the 1962 MGM Movie. You can find all our coverage of the Sinking Here (Above: Bounty from tall ships 2009 Below: from Tallships 2012, 2 months before her sinking)
From the Release:
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 www.ntsb.gov/investigations/fulltext/MAB1403.html