Rescue of the Bounty: Disaster and Survival in Superstorm Sandy by Michael J. Tougias, Douglas A. Campbell Page B
Authors: Michael J. Tougias, Douglas A. Campbell
Ads: Link
about the same as her average speed since leaving Long Island Sound. The ride was still comfortable, even in the building seas and winds that had reached twenty-five knots. That wasn’t a surprise to the crew, but might have been for others.
Some detractors who knew little about Bounty dismissed her as a “movie prop,” but her construction was anything but throwaway. On his occasional stints aboard Bounty during the 1990s, Richard Bailey, skipper of the Rose , found her “stoutly built by Nova Scotia craftsmen who knew what they were doing. A lot of effort and thought went into building her.”
Bounty had needed her young strength because MGM was intent on filming its movie Mutiny on the Bounty on location in Tahiti. They asked a naval architect to design a ship capable of the voyage halfway around the world. Bounty left Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, sailed through the Panama Canal, and crossed much of the Pacific Ocean before it was on scene.
The reality of life at sea then was substituted for by the imagination of Hollywood. It is somewhat instructive to compare the portrayal of William Bligh—played by Trevor Howard—in that movie with Bounty ’s skipper in 2012, Robin Walbridge.
In MGM’s version of the tale, Bounty set sail in 1787 from England, a ship in the Royal Navy commissioned for a commercial venture. She was to take on a cargo of breadfruit harvested in Tahiti and deliver it to the Caribbean, where plantation owners wanted to experiment with the plant as food for slaves. Breadfruit had replaced rice in the Pacific as the crop of choice. Up to two hundred of the grapefruit-size, coarse-skinned fruit grew on one eighty-five-foot-tall tree. The implications for the Caribbean, where plantation owners were apparently seeking a better profit margin through the stomachs of slaves, were promising. Thus far, MGM’s film dealt with fact.
But then the plot took liberties, creating a despotic Bligh against whom audiences could jeer and a handsome, sensitive Fletcher Christian—Marlon Brando—whom they could cheer.
Filming in Ultra Panavision 70 for the first time, the cameras—powered by large generators in Bounty ’s hold—framed Bligh in a series of wrathful acts.
First, he snatches more than his share of cheese, and when he’s confronted by an ordinary seaman who accuses the skipper of the pilferage, Bligh orders the man whipped for showing disrespect to a superior.
Brando’s Christian is offended, but Bligh states, “Cruelty with a purpose is not cruelty, it is efficiency.”
Bligh—who had served with Captain Cook in his earlier expeditions—has choices of routes to get to Tahiti. The longer route is east around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. He attempts the shorter, more treacherous route, around South America’s Cape Horn, but after failing to make the rounding and wasting precious time, Bligh eventually takes the eastern route and pushes the crew to get back on schedule, cutting their rations rather than stopping to resupply.
All may not be forgotten by the crew when they reach Tahiti, but they become preoccupied with the willingness of the local women. Even Christian falls for one, the daughter of the local king.
Bligh, however, is stewing. The breadfruit plants are dormant and not ready for harvest, and while his crew frolics and three members attempt to desert—they’re stopped by Christian and imprisoned by Bligh—the captain’s fury grows.
Once the breadfruit is finally harvested, Bligh loads the hold with twice as many plants as planned. That means that water that should have been shipped for the crew must now be used to water the plants, and the new water rations add fuel to the crew’s displeasure, leading one crew member to attack Bligh, who orders the fellow keelhauled and killed.
Then Bligh discovers Christian giving a sick seaman water and strikes his mate, who returns the blow. Bligh issues a death sentence, to be carried out at the next port.
So Christian—Brando—leads
Some detractors who knew little about Bounty dismissed her as a “movie prop,” but her construction was anything but throwaway. On his occasional stints aboard Bounty during the 1990s, Richard Bailey, skipper of the Rose , found her “stoutly built by Nova Scotia craftsmen who knew what they were doing. A lot of effort and thought went into building her.”
Bounty had needed her young strength because MGM was intent on filming its movie Mutiny on the Bounty on location in Tahiti. They asked a naval architect to design a ship capable of the voyage halfway around the world. Bounty left Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, sailed through the Panama Canal, and crossed much of the Pacific Ocean before it was on scene.
The reality of life at sea then was substituted for by the imagination of Hollywood. It is somewhat instructive to compare the portrayal of William Bligh—played by Trevor Howard—in that movie with Bounty ’s skipper in 2012, Robin Walbridge.
In MGM’s version of the tale, Bounty set sail in 1787 from England, a ship in the Royal Navy commissioned for a commercial venture. She was to take on a cargo of breadfruit harvested in Tahiti and deliver it to the Caribbean, where plantation owners wanted to experiment with the plant as food for slaves. Breadfruit had replaced rice in the Pacific as the crop of choice. Up to two hundred of the grapefruit-size, coarse-skinned fruit grew on one eighty-five-foot-tall tree. The implications for the Caribbean, where plantation owners were apparently seeking a better profit margin through the stomachs of slaves, were promising. Thus far, MGM’s film dealt with fact.
But then the plot took liberties, creating a despotic Bligh against whom audiences could jeer and a handsome, sensitive Fletcher Christian—Marlon Brando—whom they could cheer.
Filming in Ultra Panavision 70 for the first time, the cameras—powered by large generators in Bounty ’s hold—framed Bligh in a series of wrathful acts.
First, he snatches more than his share of cheese, and when he’s confronted by an ordinary seaman who accuses the skipper of the pilferage, Bligh orders the man whipped for showing disrespect to a superior.
Brando’s Christian is offended, but Bligh states, “Cruelty with a purpose is not cruelty, it is efficiency.”
Bligh—who had served with Captain Cook in his earlier expeditions—has choices of routes to get to Tahiti. The longer route is east around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. He attempts the shorter, more treacherous route, around South America’s Cape Horn, but after failing to make the rounding and wasting precious time, Bligh eventually takes the eastern route and pushes the crew to get back on schedule, cutting their rations rather than stopping to resupply.
All may not be forgotten by the crew when they reach Tahiti, but they become preoccupied with the willingness of the local women. Even Christian falls for one, the daughter of the local king.
Bligh, however, is stewing. The breadfruit plants are dormant and not ready for harvest, and while his crew frolics and three members attempt to desert—they’re stopped by Christian and imprisoned by Bligh—the captain’s fury grows.
Once the breadfruit is finally harvested, Bligh loads the hold with twice as many plants as planned. That means that water that should have been shipped for the crew must now be used to water the plants, and the new water rations add fuel to the crew’s displeasure, leading one crew member to attack Bligh, who orders the fellow keelhauled and killed.
Then Bligh discovers Christian giving a sick seaman water and strikes his mate, who returns the blow. Bligh issues a death sentence, to be carried out at the next port.
So Christian—Brando—leads
Similar Books
