The Bounty (of Mutiny on the..fame) went down in the storm the other day. It must have been terrible and involved loss of life as well as the property. Horrible. We can't imagine the fear that took hold during the last hours.
By accounts, the ship was taking in a couple feet of water an hour and the waves surrounding her were in the 30 foot range and the wind blowing like crazy. There must have been a point, a tipping point to be correct, when the water filling up the ship turned into something of a clock on the wall measured not by minutes and seconds but by gallons and water markings on the walls. At one point the glass became "half full" and instead of the optimism associated with that (v. half empty) despair must have set in.
Being smart sailors all, they set off the distress signals in plenty of time, had the appropriate equipment and survival rafts at the ready and most were saved. Two were not; the captain being one of the unfortunate.
The Bounty has visited our village on several occasions. We have been aboard it and after the Tall Ships visited in late May, we were on the dock to watch it cast off and sail away. It was magnificent, lines taught, sails at the ready, deck hands springing to the orders. If you didn't know the day and date, you were lost in time.
What a terrible shame.
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