 Bounty onSydney Harbour,Sydney, 1996 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Hong Kong | |
| Owner | HKR International[1] |
| Operator | Hong Kong Resort Company[1] |
| Builder | Oceania Marine (before Whangerei Engineering & Construction Ltd) Whangarei, New Zealand[2] |
| Cost | $4,500,000[3] |
| Laid down | 1977 |
| Launched | 16 December 1978[4] |
| Decommissioned | 1 August 2017 |
| Home port | Discovery Bay (Lantau Island),New Territories,Hong Kong[1] |
| Identification | |
| Status | Unknown, presumed to be inThailand |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 247[2] |
| Displacement | 387 tonnes |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 7 m (23 ft) |
| Height | 33 m (108 ft) |
| Decks | 3 |
| Sail plan | Sail area 900 m2 (9,700 sq ft) |
| Capacity | 39[5] |
| Crew | 14[5] |
Bounty[2] (popularlyHMAVBounty)[FN 1] is an enlarged reconstruction of the original 1787Royal Navy sailing shipHMS Bounty, built inWhangarei, New Zealand in 1978 for the movieThe Bounty starringMel Gibson andAnthony Hopkins. The ship launched on 16 December 1978[4] and was decommissioned in 2017. Its current location is unknown.
For the filming ofThe Bounty, a replica ofWilliam Bligh's ship,HMS Bounty was required. TheBounty replica was built by Whangarei Engineering Company atWhangarei, New Zealand during 1978 and 1979.[6] The ship was designed to externally conform to the originalBounty.[7] The replica is 40.5 metres (133 ft) inlength overall, with a beam of 8.5 metres (28 ft) and a draught of 3.8 metres (12 ft).[8]
To reflect the international legacy of theMutiny on theBounty, materials for the ship were sourced from across theBritish Commonwealth.[7] The hull was fabricated from Australian steel, which wascarvel-clad iniroko.[7] The decking is New Zealandtanekaha.[7] The masts and spars were made of Canadian pine, with sails made from Scottishflax, andblocks of English ash and elm.[7] The sail plan was of abarque: some sources describe the layout as afull-rigged ship, but the ship lacks atopgallant on themizzen-mast.[7] The ship's mast height is 29 metres (95 ft), with a sail area of 650 square metres (7,000 sq ft).[8] Auxiliary propulsion is provided by two 415-horsepower (309 kW) turbocharged Kelvin 8-cylinder diesel engines, which can propel the ship at 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph).[8] The propulsion system could be activated on either side of the ship so that its effects would not spoil filming (i.e. the off-camera side).
The filmThe Bounty was completed and released in 1984.[7]Bounty was laid up in Los Angeles until 1986, when Bounty Voyages purchased the ship.[7] She was sailed to Vancouver, refitted, then sailed to Australia.[7] From here, she proceeded to England via the Suez Canal to join theFirst Fleet Re-enactment Voyage: a historical re-enactment for theAustralian Bicentenary.[7] She left England for Australia in May 1987, and sailed with the fleet viaTenerife,Rio de Janeiro,Cape Town,Mauritius, andFremantle before arriving in Sydney onAustralia Day (26 January) 1988.[9]Bounty was originally to be flagship of the re-creation voyage (due to the ship's similarities toHMS Sirius, flagship of the originalFirst Fleet), but the fleet commodore instead selectedSøren Larsen for the role.[10]
For many years she served the tourist excursion market fromCircular Quay, Sydney, Australia, before being sold to real estate conglomerateHKR International Limited in October 2007.
The company gaveBounty an additional name in Chinese,濟民號[11] (Cantonese Jyutping:Zaimanhou ; Mandarin Pinyin:Jiminhao ; English:Bounty) after company founderCha Chi Ming.For the following decade, the ship was used as a tourist attraction inDiscovery Bay, onLantau Island inHong Kong, where it was used for harbour cruises, charters, day excursions, weddings and corporate retreats.[12] With no publicity or explanation, HKRI decommissionedBounty on 1 August 2017.[13] The fate of the ship was left undisclosed.
Following this, the ship has been spotted inPhra Samut Chedi, at the mouth of theChao Phraya River inThailand. It was rechristenedBounty (เดอะ บาวน์ตี้).[14]
Google shows the ship clearly both aerially (dated 2022) and from 'Street View' (dated Oct 2020) from boats travelling up the Chao Phraya River.
