H.M.S. Bounty Sinks: Rescue and Rich Legacy in Pictures

Bounty in Better Days

Photograph by Jeff Haynes, AFP/Getty Images

The H.M.S. Bounty sails past the Chicago skyline during a 2003 tall-ship festival. When the Bounty set sail last Thursday from Connecticut en route for St. Petersburg, Florida, Captain Walbridge expressed optimism that his crew could navigate around the hurricane.

"Rest assured that the Bounty is safe and in very capable hands," Walbridge wrote on the vessel's Facebook page. "Bounty's current voyage is a calculated decision...NOT AT ALL... irresponsible or with a lack of foresight as some have suggested. The fact of the matter is... A SHIP IS SAFER AT SEA THAN IN PORT!"

But after two days, the updates became more grim. "I think we are going to be into this for several days," Walbridge wrote in an update. "We are just going to keep trying to go fast and squeese [sic] by the storm and land as fast as we can."

The last update from the Bounty was posted Sunday night. One of the ship's generators had failed, it said, and an alarming amount of water had seeped into the vessel.

Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Coast Guard received a distress call from the Bounty, sinking about 90 miles (145 kilometers) off the coast of Hatteras, North Carolina. The ship's crew had donned cold-water survival suits and life jackets before abandoning ship in two 25-person covered lifeboats.

(Related: "Sandy Far From Finished: Why Storm's Still Super, Headed for New Targets.")

Published October 30, 2012

Salvation at Sea

Video still from U.S. Coast Guard/Reuters

A U.S. Coast Guard service member rescues a crew member of the replica tall ship H.M.S. Bounty from a life raft in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Coast Guard said it would continuing to search for the one missing crew member, Capt. Robin Walbridge. "There're a lot of factors that go into survivability. Right now we're going to continue to search. Right now we're hopeful," Coast Guard Capt. Joe Kelly told the Associated Press.

(Also see "Hurricane Sandy Will Join Other Storms That Were Rare Freaks Of Nature.")

Published October 30, 2012

Higher Power

Video still from U.S. Coast Guard/Reuters

A crew member of the H.M.S. Bounty is airlifted from a life raft and into a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter on Monday. The dramatic rescue, which took place about 90 miles (145 kilometers) off the coast of North Carolina, was captured on video. (Watch "Rescue of H.M.S. Bounty During Hurricane Sandy.")

Published October 30, 2012

Bounty, Brand-New

Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic

Water rushes past the bow of the H.M.S. Bounty replica in 1962, two years after its completion. At 118 feet (36 meters) long on deck, the replica was about 30 feet (9 meters) longer than the original.

In 1789 the original Bounty had just sailed from Tahiti en route to Tonga when half of the crew, led by acting mate Fletcher Christian, mutinied.

The ship's commander, Lt. William Bligh, was forced aboard a smaller boat with 18 other men and set adrift. Bligh, who survived the ordeal after sailing more than 3,600 nautical miles, later recounted the experience:

"If you attempt to make the least resistance you will instantly be put to death," Fletcher told Bligh, in his recounting. Bligh wrote, "With a tribe of armed ruffians about me, I was forced over the side ... A few pieces of pork were now thrown to us, and some cloaths, also ... cutlasses ... We were at length cast adrift in the open ocean.”

(Hurricane Sandy Pictures: Storm Turns Iconic Sites Ghostly.)

Published October 30, 2012

Adventure Unfurled

Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic

Crew members aboard the replica of H.M.S. Bounty work together to unfurl the ship's main topsail in a 1962 National Geographic magazine picture.

In 1789 the original Bounty was run ashore on Pitcairn Island, part of a British overseas territory in the southern Pacific Ocean, and later burned on the orders of Fletcher Christian, in an attempt to elude the British Royal Navy. The fate of the Bounty and its rebellious crew was a mystery until 1825, when another ship arrived at Pitcairn Island and the full story was revealed.

(Read about a 2012 National Geographic expedition to Pitcairn Island.)

Published October 30, 2012

In the Key of Sea

Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic

Off-duty sailors aboard the H.M.S. Bounty replica relax by playing music in this National Geographic photograph from 1962.

Burned and sunken remains of the original Bounty were discovered in 1957 by National Geographic photographer and writer Luis Marden. After having seen a rudder from the ship in a museum, Marden was inspired to search Pitcairn's Bounty Bay for other remains.

"Here was a chance to combine my interest in submarine photography with a story for the National Geographic on the Pitcairn colony," Marden wrote in a 1957 National Geographic magazine article. "I did not know whether any traces of the burned Bounty still remained on the sea bed, or, if they did, whether I could find them, but I wanted very much to try." (See pictures from the 1957 Bounty article.)

Published October 30, 2012

Cast Away

Photograph from Print Collector/Alamy

Led by acting mate Christian Fletcher, 18th-century mutineers on the original H.M.S. Bounty bid farewell to Captain Bligh and 18 of his loyal crew members in an artist's conception.

The cause of the mutiny has never been made clear. Bligh himself conjectured that Christian and his co-conspirators thought they could be happier living in Tahiti than in England. Others blame Bligh's ill treatment of his crew.

(Related: "Blackbeard's Ship Confirmed off North Carolina.")

Published October 30, 2012

Heavy Legacy

Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic

An anchor fluke from the original H.M.S. Bounty juts from the seafloor off Pitcairn Island in this photograph taken in 1957, shortly after the artifact's discovery by National Geographic's Luis Marden.

Marden, who had long been fascinated by the ship and its history, was also present for one of the early voyages of the Bounty's replica, built with the aid of the original plans. The replica sank in the Atlantic Ocean this week after an encounter with Hurricane Sandy, one of the largest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

The Bounty's captain, Robin Walbridge, is still missing. "He's been in many storms," Walbridge’s wife, Claudia McCann, told the Associated Press. "He's been doing this a good portion of his life. He's been in lots of hairy situations, and he's very familiar with the boat. Same boat for 17 years; he knows it like the back of his hand."

Published October 30, 2012

More Pictures: Mystery Shipwreck Found With Muskets, Beer Bottles

Photograph courtesy NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program

Published October 30, 2012