Owner HKR International Tonnage 274 Launched 1978 Displacement 387,000 kg | Laid down 1977 Construction started 1977 Weight 387 tons Builder Oceania Marine Limited | |
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Operator Hong Kong Resort Company Homeport Discovery Bay (Lantau Island), New Territories, Hong Kong, China Identification IMO number 1001049
MMSI number 477991091 | ||
Bounty (popularly HMAV Bounty) was built in 1977/78 for the movie The Bounty starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. She is now a tourist destination in Hong Kong, China.
Contents
Design and construction
For the filming of The Bounty, a replica of William Bligh's ship, HMS Bounty 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 40.5 metres (133 ft) in length overall, with a beam of 8.5 metres (28 ft) and a draught of 3.8 metres (12 ft).
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 New Zealand 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 29 metres (95 ft), with a sail area of 650 square metres (7,000 sq ft). 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).
History
The film The Bounty was completed and released in 1984. Bounty was laid up in Los Angeles until 1986, when Bounty Voyages purchased the ship. She was sailed to Vancouver, refitted, then sailed to Australia. From here, she proceeded to England via the Suez Canal to join the First Fleet Re-enactment Voyage: a historical re-enactment for the Australian Bicentenary. She left England for Australia in May 1987, and sailed with the fleet via Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Mauritius, and Fremantle before arriving in Sydney on Australia Day (26 January) 1988. Bounty was originally to be flagship of the re-creation voyage (due to the ship's similarities to HMS Sirius, 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 Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia, before being sold to HKR International Limited in October 2007.
She is now a tourist attraction (also used for charter, excursions and sail training) based in Discovery Bay, on Lantau Island in Hong Kong, and has an additional Chinese name 濟民號 (Cantonese Jyutping: Zaimanhou ; Mandarin Pinyin: Jiminhao ; English: Bounty).