Photo:Petty Officer 2nd Class Tim Kuklewski /U.S. Coast Guard
Today is third day of hearings by the US Coast Guard on the sinking of the HMS Bounty on October 29, 2012, with loss of crew member Claudene Christian and Captain Robin Walbridge. The hearings will continue in Portsmouth VA through February 21st. Highlights of the hearings so far include the owner of the ship, Robert Hansen’s refusal to testify by invoking his Fifth Amendment rights on Tuesday. Yesterday, Todd Kosakowski, a project manager at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard in Maine, testified that d\rot was found on some of the ship’s framing while replacing planks. The extent of the rot in rest of the hull frames could not be determined with removing more planking which was not done.
I just keep looking at that picture of the poor battered ship and I can barely imagine the force of the storm that did that. The masts and yards are snapped. Any flaw in the hull would be exacerbated. I really don’t think it was the condition of the ship, but the decision to sail in that weather.
Unless the information that I have seen is incorrect, she sank in a nasty gale off Cape Hatteras. She wasn’t anywhere near the eye of the hurricane, despite all the repeated statements to the contrary. It appears to me that if the ship hadn’t come apart, she would have made it.
With luck these hearings will give us a better answer as to why she sank.