Saturday, April 9, 2011

H.M.A.V Bounty

HMS Bounty (known to historians as HM Armed Vessel Bounty, popularly as HMAV Bounty,
and to many simply as "The Bounty"), famous as the scene of the Mutiny on the Bounty
on 28 April 1789, was originally a three-masted cargo ship, the Bethia, purchased by
the British Admiralty, then modified and commissioned as His Majesty's Armed Vessel the
Bounty for a botanical mission to the Pacific Ocean.



Bounty began her career as the collier Bethia, built in 1784 at the Blaydes shipyard in Hull.
 Later she was purchased by the Royal Navy for £2,600 (roughly £260 thousand / €474 thousand / $613
thousand in modern currency) on 26 May 1787 (JJ Colledge/D Lyon say 23 May), refit, and renamed Bounty.
She was a relatively small sailing ship at 215 tons, three-masted and full-rigged.
After conversion for the breadfruit expedition, she mounted only four 4-pounders
(2 kg cannon) and ten swivel guns. Thus she was very small in comparison to other three-mast colliers
used for similar expeditions: Cook's Endeavour displaced 368 tons and Resolution 462 tons.



                          


Name:           Bounty
Builder:        Blaydes shipyard
Cost:           £1950
Acquired:       26 May 1787
Commissioned:   16 August 1787
In service:     15 October 1787
Fate: Burned,   23 January 1790

Class and type: Armed Vessel
Tons burthen:   220 26/94 tons
Length:         90 ft 10 in (27.69 m)
Beam:           24 ft 4 in (7.42 m)
Depth of hold:  11 ft 4 in (3.45 m)
Propulsion:     Sails
Sail plan:      Full rigged ship
Complement:     44 officers and men
Armament:       4 × 4 pdrs
                10 swivel guns

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