RESCUE OF THE BOUNTY

The latest nerve-wracking maritime tale by a master of the form, RESCUE OF THE BOUNTY is the story of the sinking and rescue efforts surrounding “The Bounty,” the actual replica used in the classic 1935 movie, which sank during Hurricane Sandy with sixteen aboard.
Dripping with suspense and high-stakes human drama, Rescue of the Bounty reads like a fast-paced thriller.

On Tuesday, October 24, 2012 Captain Robin Walbridge made the fateful decision to sail the HMS Bounty from New London, Connecticut to St. Petersburg, Florida. Waldridge was well aware that a hurricane was forecast to come up the Eastern seaboard. He explained to his crew of 15 that the ship would fare better at sea than at port, and that he thought he could sail “around the hurricane.” He told the crew that anyone who did not want to come on the voyage could leave the ship and there would be no hard feelings. No one took the captain up on his offer, and this decision would have fatal consequences.

Four days into the voyage, Superstorm Sandy made an almost direct hit on the Bounty. The captain issued a Mayday xplaining that the vessel’s pumps could not keep up with the incoming water. A few hours later, in the dark of night, the vessel suddenly heeled over, sending the crew tumbling into the ocean filled with crashing thirty foot waves. Some were swept far from the ship, others found themselves tangled in the rigging, while others were trapped below the surface by the masts and spreaders. The Coast Guard launched one of most complex and massive rescues in its history. Two Jayhawk helicopter crews flew into the hurricane and lowered their rescue swimmers into the boiling ocean again and again despite the dangers. Helicopter fuel was running low and difficult decisions had to be made as to when to leave the rescue scene. Ultimately 14 crew members were rescued, but the aircrews were unable to locate Captain Walbridge or 42-year old Claudine Christian (a descendant of Fletcher Christian who led the mutiny on the first Bounty so many years ago).


Michael J. Tougias is the author of a number of books, A Storm too Soon, Overboard!, The Finest Hours (with Casey Sherman), Fatal Forecast, and Ten Hours until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do. He is a sought-after lecturer who gives more than seventy presentations each year. He lives in Massachusetts. Douglas A. Campbell spent 33 years in daily journalism, 25 of those years as a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where two of his stories were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Campbell has sailed his own boats since 1979 and has twice competed in the biannual Bermuda One-Two race, sailing singlehanded from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda and double-handed in the return race.