NavList:

This Bounty was built by the Smith and Rhuland shipyard in Lunenberg -- a highly regarded yard that had been building wooden fishing schooners and, later, trawlers and other vessels since about 1900. They built the original Bluenose schooner, the Bluenose II in the '60s, and the replica British frigate HMS Rose -- which was later renamed the Surprise when it was refitted for the filming of "Master & Commander."

I worked on Bounty for a few years in the mid-90s, including a couple visits to Lunenburg, and met many of the men who built her. As one of the owners once told me, "We didn't know anything about movie props, but we told them if they wanted a boat, we could build that."

The only operational element of the ship that could rightfully be called a prop was the ship's wheel, which had originally been constructed by MGM's prop department in the 1930s for the Clark Gable version of "Mutiny on the Bounty" and was used in a number of other swashbucklers in the 1950s. It was installed on the 1960 ship by the studio as a nod to that history. Because of how it was constructed, it was in a regular state of reconstruction/repair and restoration throughout the life of the ship.

Carl
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