BOUNTY HMAV replica

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Pitcairn Island issued in 2004 a set of stamps with a miniature sheet, which depict HMAV BOUNTY.

The modern replica of the BOUNTY was built by the Whangarei Engineering Company Ltd, Wangarei, New Zealand in 1978 at the instigation of the American film producer David Lean and the financier Dino de Laurentis, she was built for the Dino de Laurentis Corp. of America, who want to make the two movies “Mutiny on the Bounty” starring Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson.

She was to be constructed as closely as possible to the real BOUNTY, but was also fitted out with engines and modern equipment necessary to fulfill her role in the making of the film.
She had a steel hull, timber clad above the wales with African Iroko and deckplanking of New Zealand Tanekaha. Her masts and spars were made from British Columbian Pine.

16 December 1978 launched as HMAV BOUNTY.
Dimensions: 40.50 x 8.60 x 5.49m, draught 3.79m. Displacement 387 tons. Height of mainmast 33.94m.
Sails were manufactured from Scottish flax. Her 19 sails have a sail area of 933m².
Accommodation for 20 persons.
Powered by 2 Kelvin TA SC 8-cyl. diesels direct coupled to 2 49Kw 60Hz alternators.

From a souvenir cover I copy as follow:

After she was completed the films were cancelled and she lay idle the first years at Whangarei.
She was opened to the public and raised many thousands of dollars for charitable organizations and proved to be a major tourist attraction in the area.

02 October 1981, she set sail for her maiden voyage, first to Auckland to be an attraction at a travel promotion show, then to the Bay of Islands where she fired a 21-gun salute when Queen Elisabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh paid a visit on board the Royal yacht BRITANNIA at that port.

In May 1982, the BOUNTY prepared to sail to America via Tahiti and Pitcairn to be featured in a film about Capt. Bligh.

The Whangarei Philatelic Society arranged for 500 souvenir covers to be posted on board the vessel. Pitcairn Island stamps were also put on the covers and arrangements made to have them cancelled when BOUNTY called at Pitcairn as she retracted the steps of the original BOUNTY.
But the long-awaited voyage was cancelled at the last minute when the planned filming was again called off. But the disappointed crew did sail away on the BOUNTY on the 15th May 1982 but only to Gt. Barrier Island off the east coast of New Zealand, carrying the souvenir covers with them. On her return to Whangarei the covers were taken off the vessel pending transfer to the next vessel carrying official mail to Pitcairn.

On 16 September 1982 the m.v. HELEN sailed for Pitcairn from Auckland. The souvenir covers were on board; they were cancelled at the Pitcairn Island Post Office on 07 October 1982 and back-stamped on their return to Whangarei on 1st November 1982.

The covers also carry the BOUNTY cachet, having been posted on board the vessel, and were signed by the Commander J.Mac’ McGuire.

Unquote.

01 January 1983 she got her first professional crew who had to sail the HMAV BOUNTY to Tahiti for the making of the film “The Bounty”.
Sailed in April 1983 and arrived after 28 days in Papeete. She remained there for two months, when used for filming around Moores. After this she sailed back to Whangarei and was laid up until 27 February 1984, when she set sail for a trip to Los Angeles via Papeete. During the passage an engineer was taken ill and the vessel was diverted to Honolulu to land the sick engineer.

She entered Los Angeles under full sail on 27 April. She stayed there for a long time and took part in the Los Angeles “Parade of Tall Ships” on 4 July.

On 13 May 1987 together with 10 other ships she set off for the re-enactment of the event which 200 years earlier saw the First Fleet depart from England to Australia via Tenerife, Cabo Verde to Rio de Janeiro then along the great circle route to Cape Town, from this port via Mauritius to Freemantle and then to Sydney where the fleet arrived 26 January 1988.
The BOUNTY carried the ‘logo’ of the Australian Post on her sails, they being the sponsors of the vessel on this trip.
At that voyage she was owned by Bounty Voyages of Sydney, Australia.
Thereafter used for 45-day cruises from Tahiti to Pitcairn. Cost of that cruise was $8.595 not including airfare to and from Tahiti. Of she has made many cruises I am not sure but when I visited Sydney about 9 years ago she was used in Sydney harbour for lunchtime cruises around Sydney harbour.

The latest I could find that in early 2003 she did not got permission to sail from Sydney to Wellington due to not seaworthy, after she was brought up to seaworthy standards she sailed to Whangarei for a refit and to make her suitable for South Pacific cruises.

Early 2005 she will make a re-enactment voyage from Wellington via some islands in the Pacific to Pitcairn Island, but I have not heard that she already has sailed for this voyage.

Pitcairn Island 1988 $3 sgMS314, 2004 60c,80c,$1.00,$3.50 sg?
Pitcarin Island 2012 20c sg?, scott? (the other stamps in this set depict the BOUNTY built in 1962 and lost in 2012.)

Source: Pacific Sail by R.Morris. Some web-sites. Watercraft Philately Vol 35 page

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Pitcairn Island 2010 London 2010 Festival of Stamps