This storm you’re having has had loads of attention even in the UK media - and it’s been known about for a while as well. To a layman, trying to sail HMS Bountry through it seems extremely idiotic.
On the other hand presumably the crew members were not drooling window lickers. And the mere fact that it’s sunk doesn’t necessarily show it was a bad choice - it could be bad luck.
Sailors and others: What’s the straight dope?
I don’t know the particulars, but depending on how far out to sea they were, it may have been their only course of action.
I’m imagining they just had some dinky topsails up for steerage, and just tried to run with it. My guess is that the hull worked too much and their pumps just couldn’t keep up.
I’m a little pissed that they sunk that ship. I know it’s a replica and all but there just aren’t that many tall ships around for them go about sinking them willynilly.
“Through” would have been extraordinarily negligent. As I understand, they were trying to sail around the storm, but Sandy’s unusual size did not allow that.
(Now me, I hauled my sailboat last week, and am too much of a fair-weather sailor to even consider going out in these conditions.)
Well, considering how far out they were and that it’s, you know, a sail ship with a relatively low top speed, I don’t think they really had a choice. And they probably stayed with the ship rather than abandon it before the storm in an effort to preserve it-- like UncleRojelio says, it’s a rather unique object.
Not worth two lives though.
My sister was on the Amistad for two years a couple years back and knows a couple of crew on the Bounty (they are both safe). But it was sailing south in a storm just off of Hatteras that convinced her that her sailing life was at its end. People wouldn’t go below deck in order to make sure they were bracing for the waves and to make sure they could get off quickly if needed. The news of the Bounty having trouble (before the missing were announced) was already giving her some not-well-received memories.
These big ships are just so vulnerable that the most secure way to keep them afloat is to move them out of harms way but they are so slow under power or under sail that they just have to go for it.
Dish,
When you say “her”, do you mean your daughter or the ship?
(Kind of confusing this weird pronoun when it comes to boats, eh?)
The insurance companies I know about will not cover a boat that heads for the Caribbean before November 1st.
Smart sailors do not do it either.
Rumor is that they wanted an head start on the tourist season so took a chance. <— no cite, note word rumor.
I am very glad none of the CC folks were harmed trying to help these people.
Our local news has covered this pretty closely, due to the fact that one of the crew is the daughter of a local politician. As I understand it, they were trying to sail around the storm, heading for dry dock in Corpus Christie.
Corpus Christie? They were due to be in Fort Lauderdale November 10/11. They were just in New London a few days ago.
I’m thinking they did not want to be caught between the storm and a shore, and so tried to go out and around. Unfortunately, she sailed like a pig and she was facing a very strong storm.
Prayers still for all those who go down to the sea in ships.
A ship in port durring a large storm is in trouble.
DrF, it appears that you are correct, and I sort of wasn’t too far off. The Bounty was scheduled to spend one weekend in St. Petersburg over Veteran’s Day, and then winter in Galveston - published schedule.
Was it stupid? I suppose, in hindsight, yes. A lot goes into that decision that we are not privy to, and the only one still missing is the captain; presumably the man who made the call to set sail.
the hindsight thing I tried to be explicit in my OP in ruling out. Obviously the fact the thing sunk shows it was the wrong decision, but let’s not be too results based please - what matters is what they knew at the time, what they should have known at the time, and in general what was reasonable.
A lot of the posts here are surprisng me - could this ship potentially be stuck at sea for weeks on end? Was there no motor power?
My understanding is that engine trouble was the primary culprit; no engine to drive her nor power for the bilge pumps.
That’s true, but I don’t think any of us here are qualified to judge the decision based on what they knew at the time.
I did find an article that quotes the captain of another tall ship, based in Baltimore, who questions the decision made by the captain of the Bounty.
For what it’s worth, another ship I know of was scheduled to sail south from Nova Scotia a week ago, but delayed because of uncertain forecasts of what became hurricane Sandy.
Eh? Bummer! This is the first I’d heard of this! Waah! The ship visited San Diego some years ago, and I took the tour. They had an actor playing Captain Bligh; he gave little lectures on Navigation, Sail Handling, etc. (Yes, including Lifeboat Survival!)
Just today, I was on the HMS Surprise (formerly the HMS Rose.) This is the ship that was used in the filming of “Master and Commander.” A very pretty replica, with clever use of fiberglass, for instance in cannons and anchors.
Ships are fragile creatures, and their lives are as the lives of other much-beloved things.
Thats certainly a factor in at least one way.
Sailboats can sail upwind up to a point. Of course something like the Bounty probably does a pretty crappy job of that compared to a modern boat. But at some point the wind becomes strong enough that you can’t make forward progress and end up going backwards no matter what you do. Being blown up onto the rocks in a major storm is not a good thing.
Which brings up another point. From one point of view, it would seem to be safest to always stay close to shore in case the shit hits the fan. But, as noted above, being close to shore is not a good thing should you get caught in wind that will drive you onto it. So, being far from shore lessens the risks in someways but you get unlucky and or careless and being far from shore can bit you in the ass.
Meant to add. Like most bad things that happen I’d bet the scenario was something like this.
Stage 1. First Decision.
We could do A or B. Well, B is safer but A doesn’t seem so bad lets do A.
Stage 2. Second decision.
A seems to not be working out so well. We could do C or D. C is probably safer but a pain the ass so lets do D because D still seems acceptable.
Stage 3. Third decision.
D was a bad idea. We could do E or F. F is less of a PITA so lets do F.
Disaster finally ensues.
Read a bunch of accident reports. Be they rock climbing, scuba diving, hiking, mountain climbing, aviation related, engineering diasters blah blah blah. Such a pattern is quite often there.
Bear in mind according to wikipedia HMS Bounty is twice the size of the original. This suggests to me that she wasn’t designed to be a replica at all costs - there are surely concessions to modern navigability?