BELFAST, Maine — Subtlety is not a word that can be used to describe the HMS Bounty.
As soon as the replica of the infamous square-rigged tall ship tied up at the Belfast city dock Wednesday, a growing crowd of onlookers started to arrive.
“I was walking across the bridge and I saw it,” Francis Marsano of Belfast said Wednesday afternoon after changing his course to get as close as possible to the Bounty. “It’s an incredible vessel. Just spectacular to see from a distance.”
The original Bounty became famous when Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian instigated a 1789 mutiny against Captain William Bligh in the South Pacific. The original Bounty was burned off Pitcairn Island.
The replica was built from original ship’s drawings to be used in the 1962 MGM film “Mutiny on the Bounty” and will be docked in the harbor until Monday. Visitors are very welcome, said Captain Robin Wallbridge, who had just steered the Bounty from Lunenberg, N.S.
He said that wherever the world-traveling Bounty goes, lots of people want to come aboard. There are three main reasons, Wallbridge said. The first is because Marlon Brando starred in the 1962 movie and he still has a lot of fans. The second reason is because the Bounty is something of a Hollywood maritime star, and has played roles in “Treasure Island” with Charlton Heston, “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
“It’s a movie ship,” the captain said. “But the real reason people want to come by and see it is because it looks like a pirate ship.”
The wooden vessel is 180 feet long, has three masts and 18 sails. It primarily travels by sail, but uses a motor on occasion, he said.
“We’d never be able to get it into places like this without one,” he said.
The Bounty was overhauled in 2006 in Boothbay Harbor, and since then has been a regular at tall ship events in England, Europe, and up and down both coasts of the U.S. as well as the Galapagos Islands, according to the website for the HMS Bounty Organization. That group works to keep the ship sailing and also uses it to teach the nearly lost arts of square rigged sailing and seamanship.
The replica has been to ports in Maine from Portland to Eastport, but this is its first visit to Belfast.
“I like Belfast,” Wallbridge said. “The weather’s beautiful.”
He confided that Johnny Depp, star of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, doesn’t know how to sail a boat.
“I’m afraid it will disillusion a lot of readers,” he said. “But he probably was the greatest actor we worked with. He was very polite and very humble.”
And so far, Wallbridge’s 20-person crew hasn’t given the captain any trouble, making a reprise of the fate of the original seem unlikely.
“I have a really, really good crew,” he said. “The crew is here because they want to be here.”
Admission to the Bounty is $10 for adults and $5 for children. The ship will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10 through Sunday, Aug. 12.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, children’s admission to the ship includes a treasure map that will lead to gold tokens hidden throughout downtown Belfast. The first 150 kids to finish the hunt will receive a goodie bag and the chance to win prizes, with the grand prize valued at more than $200.
Additionally, the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a cocktail social on the Bounty from 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, that will feature live blues music and local food and drinks.
The kid and I might have to take a trip this Sunday.
Seems that Bounty, LLC bullied the Belfast City Council into paying for part of a special platform so they could dock and load passengers…
Good for them!
Would you care to elaborate?
Elaborating, since the BDN managed to miss the full story. Sounds similar to the “Friends” of Fort Knox, aka corporate welfare… Note that the Bounty did not want to pay the docking fee either. Thank goodness for Councilors who look out for the taxpayers!
http://waldo.villagesoup.com/news/story/city-agrees-to-help-hms-bounty-with-access-platform-costs
City agrees to help HMS Bounty with access platform costs
Councilors question why city should pay
By Ben Holbrook | Aug 04, 2012
BELFAST — City councilors agreed to pick up a portion of the costs to construct a platform to allow passengers to board and disembark from the storied HMS Bounty during its visit to Belfast.The ship –– a replica of the 1762 vessel that was the scene of a mutiny –– appeared in the 1962 film “Mutiny on the Bounty,” starring Marlon Brando. As part of its East Coast tour, the ship is scheduled to arrive in Belfast Harbor Aug. 10. However, a last-minute request to construct a platform to access the ship frustrated city councilors, who questioned why the city is being asked to incur expenses on behalf of the ship.
“They said they needed public access to the ship,” Harbor Master Katherine Pickering said. “What they did not tell me is that they expected the city to help.” That help comes in the form of a platform that would stand 11 feet high to allow two, 20-foot ramps to attach, which would allow passengers to access the ship. Without the platform, Pickering said, the ship is too tall and the city’s floats too low to allow access with just the ramps. Pickering said the platform would be constructed out of scaffolding, and she expected the price would be under $1,500.
In addition to the cost of the platform, the city agreed to waive the ship’s docking fee –– at a rate of $250 per foot for a vessel over 60 feet. However, Pickering said the ship would probably not come into the harbor if the city charged it to dock.
Councilor Nancy Hamilton voiced her displeasure with the Bounty’s request for city assistance.“They’ll be here for 14 hours, so we’ll pay $100 an hour to let people go on board,” Hamilton said. “I think that’s piracy.” Hamilton’s figures were based on the time the ship is accessible to the public for its two-day stay.
Councilor Marina Delune also expressed her frustration with the ship, noting the issue of access to the vessel is not a city problem.“ This is their problem. They should be paying for it,” Delune said. Delune’s sentiments evoked some concern from Councilor Roger Lee, who questioned whether it would be wise to “snub them.” Delune quickly countered with her own question, asking Lee if he felt the crew of the HMS Bounty would choose not to come to Belfast because the city didn’t help pay for a platform.
Councilor Mike Hurley motioned to approve funding for up to half of the cost of constructing a platform, with a maximum expenditure of $800. The motion passed unanimously.
The money will be taken from the Harbor Projects account.
I would think the city would be more than willing to pay all or part of the cost just to bring in more tourists and their $$$. That’s what Belfst is all about these days.
I remember the Bounty being moored for many years at Battleship Cove in Fall River MA, where it was an attraction beside the USS Massachusetts (Big Mamie) and the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy and was lucky enough to have visited her many times. I’m so glad to hear she’s still alive and sailing the bounding main after all these years! I highly recommend a visit to see her!
I want to go to Belfast to see this ship Captain
. Belfast is 40 minute away/