Adventurers tell salty tale of high seas, hunger as they re-enact legendary HMS Bounty voyage

Adventurers re-enact legendary HMS Bounty voyage

KUPANG, Indonesia — Four adventurers encountered freak waves and severe hunger during a 48-day re-enactment of the epic sea voyage made by Captain William Bligh after a mutiny on the HMS Bounty two centuries ago.

Australian Don McIntyre, who led the expedition, smiled to dozens of enthusiasts Tuesday as they landed on shore in eastern Indonesia following an exhausting 4,400-mile (7,040-kilometer) journey that began in the South Pacific nation of Tonga.

“We were trying to get as close to Bligh and his men as possible, in our own way I’m confident we managed to achieve that,” he said, describing the challenges of navigating rough waters without charts or a compass.

It was 1789 when Bligh was cast adrift by mutineers on a 45-foot (14-meter) open longboat with 18 crew. They survived partly by catching fish and seabirds and drinking rain water.

The feat has been portrayed in novels, poems and in several “Mutiny on the Bounty” films starring Hollywood luminaries such as Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Charles Laughton, and Anthony Hopkins.

The new expedition sailed in the Talisker Bounty, an open-deck boat half the size of the original because there were only four men on board: McIntyre and fellow Australian David Bryce, Hong Kong businessman David Wilkinson and 18-year-old Briton Christopher Wilde.

McIntyre, who suffered two kidney stone attacks, said they had a meager diet that mirrored Bligh’s, consisting mostly of raw fish and biscuits, and by the end had run very low on water. They had close encounters with hidden reefs and nearly capsized four times.

“One time we were almost killed; we were less than a minute or two from total disaster,” the captain said. “It was the middle of the night and an island popped up out of nowhere. … The next thing we knew we were surrounded by breaking surf.”

“We were very lucky to get out of that.”

The original mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, eventually settled on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, where they burned Bligh’s ship, the Bounty, sinking its hull so they could not be found.

About 50 of their descendants still live on the remote island, now overseen by Britain, which governs it as its last remaining territory in the Pacific.

Online:

www.bountyboat.com/