The HMS Bounty is Lost!

Just a week or so ago, the HMS Bounty was in dry dock at the bottom of McKown Hill, here in Boothbay, Maine.

The HMS Bounty
in dry dock at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard

The HMS Bounty sinking off the coast of North Carolina
Photo courtesy of the guardian.co.uk

        Claudene Christian, a crew member, has been recovered dead and the Captain Robin Walbridge, has been lost, apparently going down with his ship. The other crew (fourteen in all) were recovered safely by the Coast Guard after the wrath of Hurricane Sandy.
 
        The Bounty, a 180-foot replica of an 18th century sailing ship that was built for the film "Mutiny on the Bounty," was 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C., when the owner called saying she'd lost contact with the crew Sunday night, The Associated Press reported. 

         For a moment when I heard the news, I realized how a 19th-century resident of this very town must have felt when they heard similar news; “The Bounty is lost!” and I felt a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

        The Bounty was a very important ship to this town of Boothbay...... there’s hardly anyone who didn’t have a friend or family member on the crew at one time or another, or had worked on her one of the numerous times she’d been in dry dock at the Shipyard.  The ferocious dedication to the "Tall Ships"  have kept these ships alive through the steam, coal, diesel and nuclear power ages. Once you sail on a tall ship, you understand the reason why men traveled by sea hundreds of years ago, blindly sailing farther and farther into the unknown. The natural rhythm of the sea, the sway of the ship, days and nights out on the ocean are so otherworldly.

        And then there are your trusted friends and shipmates. Your Captain. His Mate. The Cook. People that you eat with, work with and joke with. People that you rely on, and who rely on you. I can only imagine how close these crew members became during their voyages together. I believe these relationships are the reason why Schooner sailors are who they are: relationships between the crew, a relationship with the boat, and a relationship with the sea.

       The pain that is felt by the crew and owners of the Bounty is shared not only by Tall Ship sailors in Maine, but by sailors around the country.  Claudene and Robin died doing what they loved to do on the ship they loved to sail.  They are mourned, as well as the beautiful 3 masted HMS Bounty.