Collectibles

Item Description

Bounty was commissioned by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. She was the first largee vessel built from scratch for a film using historical sources.

Previous film vessels were fanciful conversions of existing vessels. Bounty was built to extrapolated original ship's drawings from files in the British Admiralty archives, and in the traditional manner by more than 200 workers over an 8-month period at the Smith and Rhuland shipyard in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. To assist film-making and carry production staff, her general dimensions were greatly increased resulting in a vessel nearly twice the tonnage of the original. While built primarily for film use, she was fully equipped for sailing because of the requirement to move her a great distance to the filming location. Two other well known reproductions were built at the yard subsequent to Bounty; Bluenose II and HMS Rose.

Bounty was launched on August 27, 1960. Crewed by Lunenburg fishermen and film staff, the vessel sailed via the Panama Canal to Tahiti for filming. Bounty was scheduled to be burned at the end of the film, but actor Marlon Brando protested, so MGM kept the vessel. After filming and a worldwide promotional tour, the ship was berthed in St. Petersburg, Florida as a permanent tourist attraction, where she stayed until the mid-1980s.

In 1986, Ted Turner acquired the MGM film library and Bounty with it. The ship was used for promotion and entertainment, and was used during the filming of Treasure Island with Charlton Heston and Christian Bale in 1989.

The Bounty was caught in Hurrican Sandy about 90 miles east of Cape Hatteras on October 29, 2012 where it lost at sea.

The figurehead drawing is of the wife of Captain Bligh by an MGM artist used for the carving of the figurehead on the actual ship. This print is one of only two known with the second belonging to Captain John Rumsey, former captain of the Bouty. The original of the print is in the MGM archives. 

Item Special Note

Dimensions of print inside of the frame: 34" x 40.5"

Dimensions of frame: 41" x 48"

Winner will be responsible for shipping costs. Piece is available for pick-up from Spoleto Festival USA headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina.