Rescue of the Bounty

[Thagarr]

In late October 2012, after forming in the Caribbean, Hurricane Sandy was churning up the eastern coast of the United States. It had already made deadly landfalls in Jamaica, The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and skirted the coast of Haiti causing deadly flooding. When it eventually came ashore in the north east United States. it devastated the New Jersey shore, flooded New York, New England and knocked out power to millions of people before affecting Canada as well. In some way, Hurricane Sandy affected 24 states, and left 117 dead in the US, and 69 in the Caribbean and Canada.


One of the casualties of that devastating storm was the replica HMS Bounty. She was built for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty.



Her captain, Robin Walbridge, and 1 member of her crew were tragically killed, and her 14 other crew members spent hours in life rafts in the churning waters of the cold Atlantic. She was headed for a scheduled appearance in Florida, and intentionally sailed right into the path of a monster. She sank approximately 110 miles south-east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.



The US Coast Guard sent out a C-130 Hercules and an MH-60 Jayhawk to search for survivors. Crews aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Elm and the Coast Guard Cutter Gallatin assisted also. Around 6:30 am, the first Jayhawk pulled 5 people from the raft, and a second later pulled 9 safely aboard.

Why would you intentionally sail into the path of a hurricane? Well, as it turns out, Capitan Walbridge had his reasons. He had done it before in other hurricanes, and in the same boat! Sandy was much bigger and more intense though, and there were also suggestions that the ship had not been properly maintained and was perhaps not as seaworthy as she should have been. A new book written by Michael J. Tougiasand Douglas A. Campbell examines the events that lead to this disaster, and the heroic rescue of 14 crew by the brave men and women of the US Coast Guard!

The harrowing story of the sinking and rescue of Bounty—the tall ship used in the classic 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty—which was caught in the path of Hurricane Sandy with sixteen aboard


On Thursday, October 25, 2012, Captain Robin Walbridge made the fateful decision to sail Bounty from New London, Connecticut, to St. Petersburg, Florida. Walbridge was well aware that a hurricane was forecast to travel north from the Caribbean toward the eastern seaboard. Yet the captain was determined to sail. As he explained to his crew of fifteen: a ship is always safer at sea than in port. He intended to sail “around the hurricane” and told the crew that anyone who did not want to come on the voyage could leave the ship—there would be no hard feelings. As fate would have it, no one took the captain up on his offer.

Four days into the voyage, Superstorm Sandy made an almost direct hit on Bounty. The vessel’s failing pumps could not keep up with the incoming water. The ship began to lose power as it was beaten and rocked by hurricane winds that spanned eight hundred miles. A few hours later, in the dark of night, the ship suddenly overturned ninety miles off the North Carolina coast in the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” sending the crew tumbling into an ocean filled with towering thirty-foot waves. The coast guard then launched one of the most complex and massive rescues in its history, flying two Jayhawk helicopter crews into the hurricane and lowering rescue swimmers into the raging seas again and again, despite the danger to their own lives.

In the uproar heard across American media in the days following, a single question persisted: Why did the captain decide to sail? Through hundreds of hours of interviews with the crew members, their families, and the coast guard, the masterful duo of Michael J. Tougias and Douglas A. Campbell creates an in-depth portrait of the enigmatic Captain Walbridge, his motivations, and what truly occurred aboard Bounty during those terrifying days at sea.

Dripping with suspense and vivid high-stakes drama, Rescue of the Bounty is an unforgettable tale about the brutality of nature and the human will to survive. - See more at: http://books.simonandschuster.biz/R...-J-Tougias/9781476746630#sthash.QAYDnW5F.dpuf

You can buy both the hard cover book on Amazon HERE and the Kindle version HERE!