Photo of the Week

Continuing with a change of pace this week to reflect on the tragic loss of the H.M.S Bounty replica that recently went down during Hurricane Sandy. This photo was sent to me by Paul Penny who was stationed in Panama in the early 1960's. Here you see the Bounty in Miraflores Locks in this photo taken by Paul. The Bounty transited the Panama Canal many times through the years, but Paul captured this event then. Thank you Paul for sending this great old photo in for posting.

My Dad took my brother and I to Dock 6 in Balboa when we were kids to see this majestic ship up close. It was tied up to the dock for fueling.

Below, I captured a couple of photos from a UK web site called Daily Mail. The first photo is an excellent on of the Bounty on the high seas and the last photo showing the last time anyone will see her again.

History narration from the Daily Mail web site:

The Bounty replica was built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia for the 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty that starred Marlon Brando.

It is a replica of the British Navy's original HMS Bounty on which the famous mutiny took place in Tahiti in 1789 and was used as a sailing school for prospective seafarers. It was built using the original ship drawings from files in the British admiralty archives, but its dimensions were enlarged by around a third to fit the enormous 70 mm cameras used in the filming. Some 400,000 feet of lumber were used, 10,000 square yards of canvas were sewn by hand and 10 miles of rope were rigged before it was ready for the silver screen.

The plan was to burn the ship in a dramatic final act, but Marlon Brando had become so attached to the vessel that he threatened to walk out in protest so, rather than lose their star, its owners MGM agreed to keep it in service. It has since become one of Hollywood's most famous ships and was used in filming for the 1989 film Treasure Island with Charlton Heston and also appeared in two of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, both starring Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley.

This year it was put up for sale by its current owners for $4.6 million.

The mutiny that took place aboard the original Bounty is one of the most famous of all seafaring tales. It was led by Fletcher Christian, played in the 1962 film by Marlon Brando, against commanding officer Lieutenant William Bligh, played by Trevor Howard, on 28 April 1789. According to most reports, the crew had become fed up with the rod of iron with which Lt. Bligh commanded the ship and decided overthrow him to start new lives on the Pacific Islands. They rounded up Lt Bligh and a handful of his loyal seamen and set them afloat in a dinghy leaving them to their fate.

The men then settled in on Pitcairn Island and in Tahiti before burning HMS Bounty to avoid detection where many of their descendants remain to this day.