How much compressed air would have saved the Bounty?

[boguing]

Very tragic events. I wonder if the man who survived the loss of both the Marques and the Maria Assumpta contributes here, under some adopted sobriquet...

I hope that you are not joking. I didn't know of that connection. I'll have a read tomorrow.

As I said, MA was a floating relic, and what I read of the decisions that led to her loss defied belief.

 

[Greenheart]

I hope that you are not joking. I didn't know of that connection. I'll have a read tomorrow.

As I said, MA was a floating relic, and what I read of the decisions that led to her loss defied belief.

When I first acquired access to the internet (embarrassingly recently), practically the first thing I looked up was the loss of the Maria Assumpta. I stayed at my desk till six hours after my working day ended, reading the whole horrible tale of the shipwreck.

At least 15 years earlier, I had read with fascination, the Boat International article about the brig's restoration. I hadn't realised that she wasn't in good nick, by that unhappy day in 1995. I believe sludge-contamination in the diesel, prevented her escape from a lee shore.

Nor had I previously realised that her master had also been aboard the Marques, eleven years earlier, when she sank.

Doubtless his jail sentence, and inextinguishable horror about the consequences of his errors as skipper of the Maria Assumpta were terrible things to bear, because there can hardly have been any wilful intent behind the tragedies...

...but I was shocked to discover only tonight, that by the end of the 'nineties, he had once again been allowed to take his Yachtmaster exam: http://bit.ly/SXLKD1

But, even back then, a member of one victim's family expressed disagreement with the court's having convicted the skipper...

...so perhaps there's no daftness or woeful slackness which can't eventually be excused by the law as redeemable human folly.

But since other sailing ships have since sunk, and many more people have died for avoidable reasons in similar situations, surely the rules that determine the seaworthiness of hard-to-classify vessels, could be reviewed to prevent another, grimly predictable loss?

 

[prv]

surely the rules that determine the seaworthiness of hard-to-classify vessels, could be reviewed to prevent another, grimly predictable loss?

They have been.

The Tall Ships Down chapter about the Marques in particular devotes a lot of time to the rather vague regulatory requirements of the day, how the ship was playing fast and loose with even those, and also how they have since been completely reformed.

That's in the UK. The Bounty isn't British flagged, I don't think?

If you're interested in the subject, I'd recommend the book. Examines the Pamir, Albatross, Marques, Pride of Baltimore (the first one), and Maria Assumpta.

Pete

 

[Greenheart]

Cheers Pete. I'll get a copy soon.