The Bounty

Posted by Barbara (Florida, United States) on 26 March 2008 in Transportation.

Built in 1960 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, from the keel up by the shipwrights of Smith & Rhuland Shipyard, following the original plans in the British Naval maritime Museum.

The Bounty displaces 412 tons, includes 400,000 board feet of lumber (American Oak from New Jersey for the frames, Nova Scotia Black Spruce for the hull and british Columbia Fir for the masts, yards and decks), 112 tons of screw bolts, 14 tons of bar iron, 2 1/2 tons of spikes, 1200 pounds of putty, 10 miles of line for rigging, 192 blocks for mechanical advantage, and over 10,000 sq. ft. of hand sewn canvas for the sails. Bounty is 120 feet on deck, 180 feet overall, 115 feet off the water. She has a 30 foot beam, a 13 foot draft, and 13 feet of freeboard.

Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer studios commissioned the ship to be built at a cost of $750,000 to star in the 1962 film "Mutiny on the bounty" with Marlon brando and Trevor Howard.

On August 27, 1960 the ship set sail to Tahiti to begin filming. Once filming was complete, MGM sailed the ship around the world to promote the film, eventually bringing her to New York for the World's Fair in 1964.

St. Petersburg, Florida became the ships home for 21 years until MGM film library was bought by Turner Broadcasting in 1986. Then the ship left Tampa Bay to go to Miami, the West Coast, East Coast and Great Lakes.