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Do you recognize this ship?

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  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Do you recognize this ship?
Posted by Bakster on Sunday, February 14, 2016 3:41 PM

Today I was going through some images I had taken roughly 6 years ago.  I thought you guys might enjoy seeing these. 

 

 

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Sunday, February 14, 2016 4:32 PM

The Bounty replica, right?

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Sunday, February 14, 2016 5:50 PM

Well, there have been several Bounty replicas. This one, I'm 90% sure is the one built for the Marlon Brando version of the movie, back in the late fifties - the ship that sank in a storm a while back.

Note the blue hull - which, so far as I can tell, has no historical justification (though I can't prove the original didn't have a blue hull). Also noteworthy are the furled sails - and the size of them. If you just glance at those pictures you probably won't notice the sails are there. A furled sail makes a much more compact bundle than lots of people seem to think. Also - the yards are quite properly in their lowered positions (as they would normally be when the sails were furled. And there's no sail on the crojack yard.

Nice pictures; thanks for sharing.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Sunday, February 14, 2016 7:16 PM

Right, that one. I also belive it's about 30% longer than the actual ship.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Posted by Bakster on Sunday, February 14, 2016 8:48 PM

Right you are GM, the Bounty.  As to which version, I have to defer to JT.  In the little that I know about the ship I believe he is correct. I regret not boarding her at the time. I was with a friend that is disabled and I didn't feel right about leaving her whilst I played. It was cool to see though. The Lady Washington also made a showing. 

  • Member since
    May 2013
  • From: Indiana, USA
Posted by Greg on Monday, February 15, 2016 9:45 AM

Where were these taken, Steve? (the reds in #3 make me think of Holland, MI but not likely)

Really like the way the rigging stands out in pic #3, BTW.

  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Posted by Bakster on Monday, February 15, 2016 11:59 AM

Greg, Holland Mi, a neat place to visit. Particularly in the Spring with all the roses and Dutch windmills. The images were taken in a town called Port Washington, Wi across the lake from Holland. Port is an equally quant little town off the shores of Lake Mi. Every year in mid-August they host a Maritime festival. In years past it would be a stop for some of the tall ships as they tour. More recently, financial constraints have nixed that. None the less, the area has neat lighthouses, a mainstreet that offers speciality shops, restaurants, a marina, and excelent scenic views. During the festival they will have live music and usually with artists that are perhaps more obscure, some local, and typically not just rock. Genres like celtic, blues, ect. There are of course beer gardens and food vendors. I really like going there and I wish I could live in that area. There is a good feel to the place.

More than you wanted to know!  Maybe I should work for Wi tourism?  

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Monday, February 15, 2016 12:18 PM

jtilley

Well, there have been several Bounty replicas. This one, I'm 90% sure is the one built for the Marlon Brando version of the movie, back in the late fifties - the ship that sank in a storm a while back.
 

So I did a little reading and yep that's the one. She was built about 30% larger in overall scale, and looks it. She was built in Nova Scotia in 1960, the movie was filmed in 1962 and she actually was sailed from Nova Scotia through the Panama Canal, to Tahiti.

Apparently (one source here: Wiki) the plan was to burn her at the end of the movie, but Brando intervened.

That was sunk in 2012 in Hurricane Sandy off the Carolinas, with loss of life including a woman who claimed to be a descendant of Fletcher Christian.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Posted by Bakster on Monday, February 15, 2016 1:59 PM

Thanks for the research GM.  Those are really interesting pieces of information. It is pretty amazing how quickly they built the ship. I would like to learn more about the company that built it. Did you read the story about its sinking? There are some links out there that give some pretty in-depth information on how it played out. Bad News Bears... From what I read the ship was in pretty sad shape going into that storm. It leaked like a sieve on a good day.

Btw...  I am off work today sick with a bad cold. Earlier this morning I turn on my TV and see what Turner Classic Movies was playing.  Wouldn't you know it, Mutiny on the Bounty. It was a 1935 version though and not the Marlon Brando one. None the less I watched and I enjoyed it. So that must have been another replica that TJ mentioned.

Since there seems to be some interest, I found a few more images.

 

 

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Monday, February 15, 2016 10:27 PM
That rig, for want of a better term, annoyed me a bit, as the royals always seemed an afterthought. But, maybe it's that I have a reflex which suggests that those royals were set flying All of which are natterings of a grumpy old salt whose joint ache too much tonight.
  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Monday, February 15, 2016 11:01 PM

Again from limited sources- the 1935 movie is considered to be the best of the lot by most who know the story and care. It closely follows the great Nordhoff and Hall novel trilogy, which I consider a really great read. I haven't seen that movie, but I should.

I understand that the ship used there may have been a re-rigged old fore-aft schooner, and did not look a whole lot like the real ship. But a good movie they say. I'll take your recco and look for it.

 

yes Capn, and then there's the matter of the twin diesel engines...

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Posted by Bakster on Monday, February 15, 2016 11:43 PM

Yep. Very sure the diesels brought her in. If you look closely at the first of the last three images though, it appears to me that they are in the process of furling the sails. So near that point, maybe they were under wind power.

That is interesting about the 1935 movie and the books. Thanks for that. I need to get into reading more. Subjects like this hold my interest.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 2:32 AM

To my eye it looks like the crew is in the process of furling sail in the first picture; in the others the sails are in a neat, "harbor stow."

I have mixed emotions about the three Bounty movies. The first one (actually there was an earlier, silent one in the 1920s) is generally regarded as a classic. It does indeed follow the Nordoff and Hall novels pretty closely (exception: Bligh did not command the Pandora - and the books didn't say he did). All the critics praise Charles Laughton's and Clark Gable's performances; to me they come across as caricatures, but that's just me. The Marlon Brando/Trevor Howard version is, in terms of historical accuracy, the worst - though there's some beautiful photography in it. Brando just isn't right as Fletcher Christian. (The real Christian wasn't an officer; he was a master's mate - and the notion that he was an aristocrat is ridiculous.)

The DVD version of the 1960 movie includes, as a "special feature," a short, black-and-white documentary about the building of the ship - and the long voyage she made from Nova Scotia to Tahiti (with herds of visitors coming on board at every stop along the way).

The most recent movie, with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson, has a lot to recommend it. For one thing, it's the only one that depicts Bligh as a young man (he was 34 at the time of the mutiny). And it makes the story a small-scale, intimate, human one, rather than a wide-screen epic. It's based on a good book by the historian Richard Hough, called Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian. Let's see if the following gets past the electronic censors. Hough offered the controversial interpretation that one big reason for the mutiny had to do with an "improper relationship" between Bligh and Christian. The movie hints at that - if you know what to look for.

My biggest gripe with that movie concerns the script. The writer, Robert Bolt, was a fine playwright (think: "A Man For All Seasons"), but he made no effort whatever to find out what sorts of things the characters in the Bounty story might have actually said. He didn't understand the ship's command structure (Bligh did not demote Fryer and "replace" him with Christian), and apparently made no effort to get acquainted with the nautical idiom. (No seaman would ever tell somebody to "get on the boat." "On board the boat," or "aboard the boat," or even "in the boat," ok. But one of the first things one learns about sailor-speak is that nothing ever happens on a ship or boat.)

The Nordoff and Hall trilogy is wonderful. The three books are titled Mutiny on [betcha the publishers picked the title] the Bounty, Men Against the Sea,  and Pitcairn's Island. Essential reading for any ship lover.

I think Cap'n Mac is right about the replica's rig. Some ships did have permanently fixed royal yards by 1787, but not many. And the Bounty wasn't one of them. There's a notation in Bligh's log to the effect that the original lower studding sails were "to long, so I cut them and made a royal out of the canvas." On my model I put a royal on the main mast, but none on the fore or mizzen.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    January 2016
  • From: Salt Lake City, Utah
Posted by Sailor Steve on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 4:42 AM

Wow! I just found this thread! Lovely pictures of a lovely ship.

I seem to have similar feelings as those listed above concerning the movies. I liked the Hopkins-Gibson version the best, not only because the portrayal of Bligh is more in line with what I've read, but it is also the only movie that shows his epic voyage in the longboat and his court-martial, in which he was accused of not being strict enough!

At least that's how I remember it. It's been a lot of years.

  • Member since
    May 2013
  • From: Indiana, USA
Posted by Greg on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 11:41 AM

Bakster

..... The images were taken in a town called Port Washington, Wi

Looks like a nice place to visit, a day trip candidate, albiet a rather long one. Thanks for the info, and no, it wasn't too much info at all.

Hope you are feeling better today.

  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Posted by Bakster on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 11:03 PM

Greg, it is probably not worth a day trip considering your drive-time. If you were in the area seeing other things as well then it would be worth it for sure. 

Thanks everyone for popping in to enjoy the images. It never fails to amaze me how that a small seed like this thread ends up producing such a "bounty"-ful (ha ha) amount of information. From ships, books, to movies. I always learn something, and I suspect that everyone-else does as well. It is good stuff.  

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 11:39 PM

Hats off to you for the artwork.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Posted by Bakster on Wednesday, February 17, 2016 4:05 PM

That is kind of you to say.  Thank you sir.

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