The
July 2005 • Vol. 2, No. 1
A Shoreline Community, Pine Knoll Shores, N.C.
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Town Hall 247-4353
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Replica of H.M.S. Bounty
To Visit Morehead City
The famed Tall Ship H.M.S. Bounty,
manned by Captain Robin Walbridge and
a crew of 18, is coming to the N.C. Port in
Morehead City. The North Carolina
Maritime Museum and the Pepsi
Americas Sail 2006 team are sponsoring
this summer’s visit of the Bounty as a
spectacular preview of next year’s much-
anticipated tall ships event.
Visitors are invited to view and board
one of the most celebrated ships in the
world, arriving here after filming Pirates
of the Caribbean II with Johnny Depp
and embarking on an 11-city, eight-state
East Coast tour. Originally built for the
1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty starring
Marlon Brando, she has also been featured
in many historical documentaries as well
as the Sponge Bob Square Pants movie,
released last November.
The Bounty will arrive on Thursday,
July 14 and be open for public tours from
July 15 through 17 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
(10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday). The
event will include entertainment portside
for adults and children alike, with food
and refreshments on hand. Tickets are $5
per person and are available exclusively
at the North Carolina Maritime Museum.
Proceeds will benefit the Friends of the
North Carolina Maritime Museum.
The original Bounty, commanded in
1787 by Captain William Bligh, was
commissioned to sail halfway around the
world from England to Tahiti to collect
Leatherback Turtle Makes
Historic Visit to PKS to Nest
By Peggy Sagmiller
sapling breadfruit trees and transport them to
the West Indies. Owners of the burgeoning
British plantations there needed a cheap source
of food for the workers. After a grueling 10-
month voyage, the captain and his crew arrived
on the island, and remained on Tahiti for five
months. Unfortunately for Bligh, some of his
crewmembers had no intention of leaving their
new-found paradise. A mutiny ensued on April
28,1789, led by Fletcher Christian. It would be
almost a decade before any of the survivors
were found to tell the story of the events that
have excited the romantic and adventurous for
more than two centuries.
One of the most famous ships ever to sail
the high seas, the magnificent three-masted
sailing vessel was replicated expressly for the
film Mutiny on the Bounty. She began life with
the laying of her keel in Lunenburg, Nova
Scotia, on a snowy February day in 1960.
Above decks, the Bounty is a faithful copy
of the original, from rope davits to 10,000
square feet of canvas on the square-rigged
masts. Captain Bligh’s vessel was 85 feet long
and carried a crew of 62. The new Bounty is
118 feet in length, an increase made necessary
because of space required for movement of
cameras during filming. Her beam is 30 feet,
six inches, with a 14-foot draft. Her tonnage is
480 gross and 128 net. More than 400,000
board feet of lumber, about half of it American
oak from New Jersey, was used in her planking.
The biggest timber used was in the main mast,
which is 27 inches in diameter and 65 feet long.
Continued on page 4
On Monday, May 16 a female Leatherback
sea turtle hauled her 500 plus pound body mid
beach to nest! By 4:30 p.m.., in broad daylight,
eggs were being deposited at least two feet
deep. What an amazing spectacle this was! As
the eggs were laid, the huge turtle moaned,
grunted, and sighed as ‘tears’ ran from both
eyes. After depositing her clutch, she slowly
moved down the beach into the ocean.
This is the first nest of the season in Pine
Knoll Shores, the second nest of the season in
North Carolina, and the first ever confirmed
Leatherback nest on Bogue Banks. As the
exhausted mother swam across the sandbar,
onlookers gave her a round of applause!
In the past five years, Leatherback sea
turtles have laid an average of one nest per year
in North Carolina, usually at Cape Lookout or
Cape Hatteras. This may be because the land
juts out into the ocean at these points.
The Leatherback is the largest turtle of any
kind in the world, and one of the two largest
reptiles. A mature adult can weigh more than
1,500 pounds. They are the deepest divers of
all sea turtles, going down to a depth of more
than one kilometer. The most wide-ranging of
sea turtles, they are comfortable in water of
zero degrees Centigrade, and can travel all the
way to the Arctic Circle.
Leatherback sea turtles are listed as
endangered by the U.S. Endangered Species
Act. Our usual summer visitors, the Loggerhead
sea turtles, are listed as threatened.
On Tuesday, May 31, the second nest of the
season was laid in Pine Knoll Shores. Our third
nest came in on Sunday, June 5. Both of these
are Loggerhead nests. Our 2005 season seems
to be off to a great start.
Endangered young leatherback sea turtle laying first nest of the season in PKS. The
turtle was estimated to weigh more than 500 pounds.
Standard
Pre-Sort
Permit #22
28557
The
Shoreline
Deadline for August issue is Monday, July 18. Deadline for September issue is Monday, August 22. Articles always welcome!
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