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Tall ships expert says he would not have taken HMS Bounty out during Sandy

Posted at 8:11 PM, Feb 13, 2013
and last updated 2013-02-14 06:23:26-05

An expert in tall ships said he won't ever know what was going on in the mind of the Bounty's captain, Robin Walbridge. But he would not have made that same fateful choice.

Bert Rogers of Tall Ships America said of about 50 similar ships in Atlantic ports, none but the Bounty set sail with Sandy looming in the Atlantic.

Also today, testimony showed the Bounty captain who headed south toward Sandy was asking for hurricane forecast tracks from an office manager. Tracy Simonin said she'd never done that before, and started hunting the Internet for information.

The Bounty ended up cutting right in front of the massive storm, baffling many sailors who said it had no business at sea in weather like this. Simonin testified that the official Bounty Facebook posts, including some shouting down critics of the risky voyage, were posted from Illinois, by a crewman's father.

And the online bravado, that a ship was safer at sea, turned out to be wrong. The Bounty was broken by the storm. It sank, taking the captain and crew member Claudene Christian. The rest of the crew was rescued.

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