St. Pete to commemorate the good ship Bounty

The replica 18^th century wooden sailing ship Bounty sank off the North Carolina coast during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Two lives were lost.

On Oct. 29, the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, the City of St. Petersburg will erect a plaque commemorating the working vessel, which spent more than 21 years docked year-round alongside the bayfront pier as a tourist attraction.

“St. Petersburg can never lose its history – more importantly, I think it’s incumbent upon us to celebrate that history,” said Chris Ballestra, the city’s managing director for development.

Ballestra appeared in front of City Council Thursday morning to seek approval for the plaque; it passed unanimously.

“The Bounty,” he added, “was a very important part of that history.”

The small plaque will be unveiled in a 10 a.m. ceremony, behind the St. Petersburg Museum of History – close to the ship’s original St. Pete mooring. Mayor Ken Welch will speak at the dedication.

RELATED READING: Vintage St. Pete: MGM’s Bounty

Built in 1960 in a Nova Scotia shipyard, the 180-foot Bounty was designed – using actual plans from the British Admiralty archives – as a doppelganger for the historic ship captained by William Bligh for an excursion to the South Seas in 1789.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spent $1 million on the faux Bounty, which was built slightly larger to accommodate lights, cameras and film crew, for its 1962 epic Mutiny on the Bounty (the third cinematic interpretation of the rebellion against Bligh by Fletcher Christian and other crewmen).

June 19, 1965: Accompanied by a flotilla of local watercraft, Bounty makes its grand entrance into Tampa Bay. Postcard image.

Following a round-the-world tour to publicize the movie, the fully-operational sailing ship (with diesel engines) was docked alongside St. Petersburg’s Municipal Pier – site of the current St. Pete Pier – in 1965.

There, MGM operated, through an agreement with the city, an attraction that quickly became an enormous tourist draw. Visitors could board and tour the replica ship, which was attached to a “Tahitian village” and gift shop. In its prime, Bounty attracted 250,000 annually,

Hugh Boyd, ship’s captain, and manager of the attraction from 1965 to 1985, died Jan. 26 in St. Petersburg, at age 86. He had been with the ship since its maiden voyage to Tahiti for the production of Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962.

“Many had encounters with the Bounty, whether it was a sailing trip, an onboard visit or simply taking photos with family, with the Bounty in the background,” said Ballestra.

Sometimes Bounty would be leased to other film companies – it appeared in the 1982 comedy Yellowbeard during Boyd’s tenure, and later in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Boyd also captained Bounty for several years as a stand-in pirate ship during Tampa’s Gasparilla festivities.

The vessel left its permanent berth in St. Petersburg in 1985, when media mogul Ted Turner purchased MGM Studios and all its assets.

Turner donated the vessel to the Fall River Chamber Foundation, which continued to bring Bounty to the Vinoy Basin for the winter months for much of the 1990s. In 2001, the foundation changed its name to HMS Bounty Organization LLC.

Captain Robin Walbridge and crew member Claudene Christian – a descendant of original mutineer Fletcher Christian – died when the ship, on its way for winter berthing in St. Pete, foundered and sank 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C.

Captain Walbridge’s widow, Claudia McCann, is a resident of St. Petersburg, and will be present at the Oct. 29 dedication.