In just a month, the HMS Bounty was set to go on display at Pier 21 in Galveston. But those plans abruptly changed when the Bounty couldn't outrun Sandy.
The Bounty was a replica of a tall ship created 50 years ago for the movie, 'Mutiny on the Bounty.' In recent years, it was pressed into service as the Black Pearl in 'Pirates of the Caribbean.'
Last week, it set out from Connecticut, bound for Florida and eventually Galveston in advance of the hurricane. But it went down off Cape Hatteras on Monday. The Coast Guard rescued 14 crew members from the Atlantic. A fifteenth crew member was recovered, but died. The captain is still missing and presumed dead.
The HMS Bounty Foundation was trying out Galveston as a possible winter home.
"I think it would have been a great attraction. A lot of local people have been asking us, 'When is Bounty coming? What's gonna happen?'" said John Schaumberg with the Texas Seaport Museum.
It is a loss; tourists will tell you that.
"That would have been neat if it could have," one woman told us.
But it is more than that. A rare ship is gone, taking two lives with her.
"These are highly trained professional people who know what they're doing and know where they're going. Mother Nature is simply a dangerous force," said Mark Scibinico, crew member of the Elissa which is docked in Galveston.
He says the area where the Bounty went down, 90 miles off Cape Hatteras, is called the ship graveyard of the mid-Atlantic.
By the way, the Elissa is currently in dry dock and will be back at the end of November.
