I have been reading on that Captain's forum and there are there interesting stuff.
This time about the Bounty:
Yes, t
he bounty was an uninspected vessel classed as a dockside attraction.The ship was only allowed to take up to 12 passengers.
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So that means it should never put to sea. I feel that Chief Rob is correct in assuming what he thinks it sounds like: a dock side attraction is a 'dock side attraction' and not a vessel for sailing with or without passengers, at the very most as Near Coastal. And....how do you determine an "un inspected vessel classed as a dockside attraction" but is allowed up to 12 passengers? Seems to be a large grey area here.
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as an uninspected passenger vessel, BOUNTY's hull was not in any way obligated to hull examination by the USCG.
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I am sure the investigation will touch on this subject to the great dismay of the carnival boat crowd.
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Here is what I feel is the most disrespectful aspect of the 'Industry'. The industry depends upon almost solely "paid" crewmembers who PAY for the privilege of being allowed to crew! These people are on a 'pay to play' vessel. They are not considered passengers, because they are necessary to operate the vessel. The sail training org has used this as a way to help cover operating expenses for years. They are in effect taking paying passengers for hire, using them as crew, and as far as anyone outside knows they are signed on as crew. O
nly a couple people on the ships are actual professional deckhands. Likely the Captain is the only one with a license.
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Having sailed through many on the bounty I can tell you, we would have to keep the pumps running almost constantly to keep the boat dry. When it was dead calm out, we would still pump out the ship every hour. That is the reality of these wooden ships.
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So a vessel that leaked this amount, departed for sea KNOWING it was dependent upon power operated bilge pumps for surviving, and did NOT have plain old mechanical hand operated pumps? THAT is your redundancy you were discussing a couple posts ago. Having two electric pumps on a wooden hull is ok.... IF there is a hand pump as backup. Every sailboat I have been on has one.
Sorry Charlie, that right there is all I need to hear about the negligence of both the Captain AND the owner for allowing the vessels to sail (at all)
I would venture to guess that they started taking on more water than they could handle, engine room floods, no more power...
there are two motor/generators and two engines on the Bounty.
One MG was in continuous use because the other MG was broken and had been that way for at least a year. The running MG was never turned off even in port because they "were afraid it wouldn't start again" if they shut it down. There is a water tight door below the galley however there is a 1' x 2' gap underneath the WTD which wouldn't seal. The aft mast was broken from the previous storm they endured. There was little or no way to keep water from going into the ship via the deck because there were no hatches on the deck. The bottom line is that the ship was in very poor mechanical condition even to the most ignorant of inspectors. It certainly should not have been taken into rough seas.
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Without doubt! In wildly short and steep stern seas, that horn timber and rudder would be twisting constantly and it was only a short matter of time before all the plank ends sprung and then popping the planks off the frames forward from there. With the engine and generators all aft, that was the first space to flood and I hazard to guess that the vessel did not have an emergency generator or an emergency bilge pump?
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With this scenario, the way to save the vessel would have been to have to wear ship to bring her head to the sea and to stream anything possible in the form of a storm anchor to hold the head up. With the strain off the sternpost, the flooding might have subsided enough for the pumps to keep up with the inrush of water. What I want to know is each and every step Walbridge took in the 12 hours prior to the loss of the vessel? The survivors hopefully will tell us soon.
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As you can all see this is pretty bad. No inspections at all? Jesus I know that in the US you don't like rules and regulations but this seems plain crazy to me
And by the way, it is not normal to a wooden boat to make that amount of water...it is only normal in an old boat that should be grounded ore have a complete refit.
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