Visit with the Bounty

Johnny Depp may not have made the journey to Thunder Bay aboard HMS Bounty, but Captain Jack Sparrow made an appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Micheal Swaren, decked out in green pirate leggings, a brown vest and a poofy white shirt, his brown locks braided in several places and wrapped in a sky blue bandana, was in his glory boarding the 49-year-old vessel, which spent the past two days docked at Pier 3 at Marina Park.

"It’s pretty mesmerizing, actually," he said, doing near perfect impression of Depp’s Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

"I keep getting me picture taken. Everybody thinks I’m pretty, I guess. It’s not every day that a pirate ship comes into town. I had a pirate costume and thought I might as well."

Swaren was among the first 500 or so to board the ship, built in 1960 for use in the Marlon Brando remake of Mutiny on the Bounty.

Hundreds more waited patiently in line, some for more than two hours, for a chance to tour the Bounty, a line that snaked its way from Pier 3 around the naval memorial as far back as the Marina Park band shell.

"I quite liked it," Swaren said. "It was like something I hadn’t seen before. I would do it again."

Julian Holenstein and his four-year-old son Simon were among the first to board the Bounty. They went, Julian said, because Simon is a big fan of pirates and it just seemed to be the natural thing to do.

"I don’t know. (Kids) immediately adopt the love of the high seas and tall ships. So we thought we’d better come down here and take a chance to get on the ship. We came down early and missed a lot of the lineup, so we’re pretty happy we got here," Holenstein said.

Built in Lunenburg, N.S. and christened in August 1961, the Bounty is 180 feet long, with a mast that stretches 115 feet into the sky, using 400,000 board feet of lumber, 10 miles of rigging and weighs 412 tonnes.

All of it kept young Simon in awe, his eyes darting from deck to sky, taking it all in.

"It’s just the size and scale of the masts that are on this ship, and the rope and the riggings that accompany a ship of this size (that intrigue us)," Holenstein said. "We’ve only made it to the helm and we had a chance to hold onto the wheel and we’re going to continue our journey."

It’s a journey Capt. Robin Walbridge knows all too well, having guided the ship around the world for the past 15 years.

Hit by a short squall as the ship arrived in Thunder Bay from Duluth, Walbridge said the bad weather is always worth the rough waters for a chance to share the history of a ship that has also appeared in movies as diverse as Treasure Island to Sponge Bob Square Pants –The Movie.

"I think probably the No. 1 thing people see in us is they walk around the corner and they say look, there’s the pirate ship. I think we’re what everyone’s mental image of what a pirate ship should be. No. 2 we’re a movie ship, we’ve been in quite a number of different movies."

Walbridge, who figures he’s spent about three years with his wife during 15 years of marriage, said he loves when the ship is used in films. As captain, he does all the sailing, meaning he gets to meet the stars aboard the ship.

He also has to deal with the producers and directors.

"Everybody has horror stories about movie companies. But I think movie companies are great to work with. They’ll come up and they’ll ask you if they can throw a cannonball through the side of the ship. They’ll ask and you say no and they say, ‘Oh, OK, no problem," Walbridge said. "I think most people think that when they ask, they’ve already done it. But you just say no."

The ship is usually on the water year-round, with a two-month stop in Florida – this winter it will be Puerto Rico – as a standing attraction.

Among the crew this summer is Florida’s Laura Groves, who has been aboard since April.
It’s not your everyday summer job, she said.

Each day involves two four-hour watches and a four-hour work period, rain or shine.

"You kind of sleep in different chunks, whenever you can," she said, perched on the deck.

"Watch involves somebody at the helm driving the boat, somebody on lookout looking for other ships, other boats, large things in the water we don’t want to hit, buoys, channels and markers. Then someone’s doing a boat check every 30 minutes."

The Bounty departs for Green Bay, Wis. on Thursday.