The photo shows the Bounty as I last saw her this summer, entering my home port harbor silhouetted against a gray dawn sky, sails furled, all crew on deck, coming to shore after another sea passage. Massive, magnificent, beautiful, and stunningly complex of rigging - but most of all, as she passed, you saw it in the faces of the crew: triumphant. Bounty was a link to an age of sail many think historical but which she proved still alive. It took a lot to sail that ship. And she gave great pleasure to everyone who saw her, and to some, great meaning.
Our hearts go out to the families of the two who went down with her in the Atlantic yesterday.
There will be endless discussion of why her captain took her out to sea with a hurricane on its way. He's not here to answer, and we must respect that his decision did not come as easily or as superficially as the words of many commenters now. I think only someone who lived on this ship and knew her and her crew well could make such a decision. Let the fourteen survivors tell their story, or not, and realize that it is their story, not ours.
