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U.S. Safety Board Blames Captain For

2012 Bounty Sinking

The sinking of the tall ship Bounty off the North Carolina coast in 2012 was likely caused

by the captains reckless decision to sail the vessel into the path of Hurricane Sandy,

the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday.

Captain Robin Walbridge, 63, and a crew member were killed when the 108-foot (33-

meter) ship, built for the 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty, sank before dawn on Oct.

29, 2012. It foundered about 130 miles (210 km) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North

Carolina, after being battered by Sandys 30-foot (9-meter) seas and 100-mile (161 km)

per hour wind gusts.

Coast Guard helicopters rescued 14 crew members, including three seriously injured,

several hours after the ship sank.

The probable cause of the sinking of tall ship Bounty was the captains reckless

decision to sail the vessel into the well-forecasted path of Hurricane Sandy, which

subjected the aging vessel and the inexperienced crew to conditions from which the

vessel could not recover, the report concluded.

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Image credits: US Coast Guard

Surviving crew members testified at a Coast Guard hearing last February in Virginia.

The NTSB accident report said several crew members had expressed their concerns to

the captain about sailing into the storm prior to leaving port at New London,Connecticut, on Oct. 25, 2012, bound for St. Petersburg, Florida.

The captain, whose body was never found, told the crew he was confident the ship

could handle the rough weather. He also told a Maine television station that the Bounty

had chased hurricanes, the NTSB report said.

The NTSB also laid some of the blame on the group responsible for managing the ship,

HMS Bounty Organization LLC, saying it did nothing to dissuade the captain from sailing

into the storm.

The safety board said the crew fixed seams in the wooden hull with household kitchen

and bath caulk supplied by the captain, which was not recommended for marine use.

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The ships hull also had areas of wood rot that the captain told the crew could not be

repaired due to a lack of time and money, according to the report.

The family of the crew member who died, Claudene Christian, has sued HMS Bounty

Organization and the ships owner, Robert Hansen, for $90 million, alleging the Bounty

was unseaworthy and the captain negligent.

Hansen was not immediately available for comment on the NTSB report.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Additional reporting by Harriet McLeod; editing by Jon

Herskovitz, G Crosse and Tom Brown)