Bounty trip scuttled

Press, 14 May 1982, Page 1

Bounty trip scuttled

Special correspondent The crew of the replica of the sailing ship Bounty were all at sea last evening over a proposed two-month voyage to Panaama. A day before the ship had been expected to set sail for Auckland and a. formal farewell to New Zealand, the crew.of 18 was stunned by a brief message from New York cancelling the trip. For the last two months, the crew has awakened at 6 a.m. on most mornings to prepare the Bounty for her 6000-mile journey and a star-

ring role in a film planned by the Dino de Laurentiis Corporation. But the corporation’s representative in Whangarei, Mr J. M. McGuire, had a telephone call from the corporation’s lawyer in New York yesterday morning and was told that “the trip has been cancelled.” The lawyer did not say that the film had been abandoned. As crew members who had given up jobs and sold possessions to make the voyage pondered their future, Mr McGuire said that he would

try to speak to Mr de Laurentiis personally today to clarify the position. The crew, which had just finished checking rigging and sails after taking in stores, was shattered by . the news that the voyage appeared to be off. The Bounty was to have left Whangarei at noon today and to have reached Auckland tomorrow. She was to have been open to the public at Auckland on Sunday and then to have been the toast of an official farewell on Monday, before sailing at 12.30 p.m.