Bounty (1978 ship)

For the filming of The Bounty, a replica of William Bligh's ship, was required. The Bounty replica was built by Whangarei Engineering Company at Whangarei, New Zealand during 1978 and 1979. The ship was designed to externally conform to the original Bounty. The replica is in length overall, with a beam of and a draught of . Sourced materials To reflect the international legacy of the Mutiny on the Bounty, materials for the ship were sourced from across the British Commonwealth. The hull was fabricated from Australian steel, which was carvel-clad in iroko. The decking is New Zealand tanekaha. The masts and spars were made of Canadian pine, with sails made from Scottish flax, and blocks of English ash and elm. The sail plan was of a barque: some sources describe the layout as a full-rigged ship, but the ship lacks a topgallant on the mizzen-mast. The ship's mast height is , with a sail area of . Auxiliary propulsion is provided by two turbocharged Kelvin 8-cylinder diesel engines, which can propel the ship at . 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). ==History==

Post filming The film The Bounty was completed and released in 1984. Bounty was originally to be flagship of the re-creation voyage (due to the ship's similarities to , flagship of the original First Fleet), but the fleet commodore instead selected Søren Larsen for the role. For many years she served the tourist excursion market from Circular Quay, Sydney, Australia, before being sold to real estate conglomerate HKR International Limited in October 2007. The company gave Bounty an additional name in Chinese, (Cantonese Jyutping: Zaimanhou ; Mandarin Pinyin: Jiminhao ; English: Bounty) after company founder Cha Chi Ming. For the following decade, the ship was used as a tourist attraction in Discovery Bay, on Lantau Island in Hong Kong, where it was used for harbour cruises, charters, day excursions, weddings and corporate retreats . With no publicity or explanation, HKRI decommissioned Bounty on 1 August 2017. The fate of the ship was left undisclosed. Following this, the ship has been spotted in Phra Samut Chedi, at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River in Thailand. It was rechristened Bounty (เดอะ บาวน์ตี้). Google shows the ship clearly both aerially (dated 2022) and from 'Street View' (dated Oct 2020) from boats travelling up the Chao Phraya River. ==See also==