Why did the Bounty sink?

Hmmmmmmmm.

Actually, I was thinking about posting that myself earlier as an example of changing viewpoints. I'm capable of it. I'll always side with the professional unless/until proved wrong. A professional earns and deserves that. I also understand the captain's reasoning in leaving New London with what was forecast and considering past history. Hurricanes don't generally plow into NY Harbor. Much more often they come through Eastern Long Island and straight for Connecticut, and everybody around here knows the tale of the hurricane of 1938. My mother was driving from New London to NY during it. I'd be inclined to get out of there as well, although I'd have headed for the Chesapeake or Maine, not around Hatteras.

Further, the captain did have good credentials.

However, what's come out since that time has me shaking my head in disbelief. I don't understand how a professional with his experience could possibly s---w up so severely in so many ways. He acted with total incompetence. Running into the storm was stupid, but allowing the boat to be in that condition, and then running into the hurricane like that was possibly even criminal.

And didn't I say this same thing; "So I'll leave the blaming of the owner or the CG to the lawyers." "Guess I'd never cut it as a lawyer." "They have a financial responsibility" "Mind you, I am not exonerating the owners" "in our current culture we're always looking to blame someone, and it frustrates us when the culprit is dead. So we look for someone else, especially someone with deep pockets. The owner took no affirmative action one way or another. So I'll leave the blaming of the owner or the CG to the lawyers."

It was a corporate asset being moved by the hired captain and crew to relocate to a revenue generating port. It was not doing a day sail.

The letter of the law that allowed the owning company to use "volunteers" as crew was and still is a means to maintain that illusion.

The ships that make the final voyage on their own power are still classed and insured. They are manned according to flag state requirements and all safety systems are functional and meet port state control inspection standards. They are not what you imagine they are. Those ships that are not legally or mechanically capable of making the voyage under their own power are towed and because they are not manned and tug crews do not board to correct problems, do on rare occasions, flood and sink.

Few working mariners take such risks. That is the realm of the amateur role player. Admitting doing so is a peculiar way of establishing bona fides for discussing the chain of errors that lead to Bounty's sinking and the death of that starry eyed young woman.

You equated this to the sinking of the Korean Ferry. Maybe I missed the issuance of fines and murder charges against the owner. Please point that out.

When was the last time you worked as Master of any boat, much less a working boat such as a crabber, a fishing trawler, an oil spill response boat, or a lobster boat? When was the last time you took on the responsibility for transporting a boat on the north Atlantic in the dead of winter? When was the last time you hooked up a 2,000 lb. pallet on the deck of a 65' crew boat in 8' seas, did it fast enough and jumped out of the way before it left the deck like a rocket? The graveyards are filled with memorials to sailors who went to sea and never returned. The shore side bars are filled with sailors with missing fingers and limbs. You call them "amateurs". I call them "men". Not every captain and crew spends their career in a pretty white shirt, and a clip on tie.

You're very quick to call people who spend their entire lives and careers working on the water "amateurs", because they don't own or work on uber-rich toys when in fact you're nothing more than an arm chair quarterback. You're like the guy who knows every stat of every NFL player, and screams about what they're doing wrong, but has never suited up and faced an offensive line. You're a fraud. Go back and sit behind your desk and study your rules and regs. It's safer than actually working.

Hi,

Ain't we got one fired up N Yorker here this morning.

You make some rather strong and defamatory statements in your rambling post there Ed.

I do not believe that the poster you so happily dismiss as a fraud is anything of the kind.

I am aware after having done a bit of research into something he does apart from contribute to this forum of his professional qualifications and am wondering that if you consider the holder of a USCG Masters License and a USCG Unlimited Chief Engineers License to be a fraud, you must also consider yourself to be of a similar ilk.

While querying folks sea going experience I am curious as to when you last spent anytime driving anything that went out of sight of land.

Oh boy... this thread is following the Bounty.

I think we can all agree, the thread has run its course. Further deterioration will only result in more readers being turned off.

The thread is being closed.