[SFDXA] Robin Walbridge, KD4OHZ, Missing at Sea after Sinking of Tall Ship Bounty

[Bill]

 From the ARRL Letter...

Robin Walbridge, KD4OHZ, Missing at Sea after Sinking of Tall Ship 
/Bounty/; Ship's Electrician Doug Faunt, N6TQS, Rescued

Every DXer knows the story of the HMS /Bounty/ and Pitcairn Island, VP6: 
In 1789, the HMS /Bounty/ -- a small three-masted sailing vessel sent by 
Britain's Royal Navy to the Pacific on a supply expedition -- was roiled 
by tension between its crew and its captain, William Bligh. After 
landing in Tahiti and taking on a cargo of breadfruit, the /Bounty/ set 
sail for the West Indies; it never reached that destination. Instead, 
Master's Mate Fletcher Christian led the men in a mutiny, eventually 
allowing Bligh and his loyalists to sail off in a longboat. After an 
arduous journey, they reached safety at the Dutch-owned port of Kupang. 
Christian and his followers ended up on Pitcairn Island where they 
burned the /Bounty/ and settled on the island. Passing ships did not 
discover the enclave until after the turn of the century.

/Bounty /Captain Robin Walbridge, KD4OHZ, is presumed lost at sea.

On Monday, October 29, a replica of the /Bounty 
<http://www.tallshipbounty.org/>/ -- built in 1960 for a remake of the 
1962 film /Mutiny on the Bounty/ -- sank off the coast of North Carolina 
as Hurricane Sandy made its way toward New Jersey. Of its 16 crew 
members, 14 were rescued by the US Coast Guard. /Bounty/ Captain Robin 
Walbridge, KD4OHZ, never made it to one of the two deployed life rafts 
and is presumed dead. Claudene Christian, who claimed to be a direct 
descendent of Fletcher Christian, was unresponsive and passed away at a 
North Carolina hospital on Monday evening.

Doug Faunt, N6TQS, of Oakland, California, was one of the 14 who was 
rescued by the Coast Guard; Faunt served as a deckhand and was also the 
ship's electrician. A noted DXer and ARRL Life Member, he was part of 
the FO0AAA DXpedition crew in 2000 to Clipperton Island. He was also a 
member of the VP6DIA DXpedition to Ducie Island, and in 2007, he was 
part of the DXpedition to Lakshadweep. According to Spud Roscoe, VE1BC, 
Faunt had satellite communications equipment and /Winlink/ capabilities 
on board the /Bounty/, but he was not the ship's radio officer. "Sailing 
on replica ships was a hobby of Doug's," Roscoe told the ARRL. "He had 
previously sailed across the Great Australian Bight on a replica of the 
HMB /Endeavour/ <http://www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1437>, Captain 
Cook's ship. He was an able seaman of the watch." Roscoe was the radio 
officer on the replica /Bounty/ for its original voyage to France in 1962.

Doug Fount, N6TQS, served as a deckhand and electrician on the /Bounty/. 
He, along with 13 others, was rescued by the US Coast Guard.

Faunt told the ARRL that the /Bounty/ crew tried various methods, 
including a satellite phone, to call for help, "but we got nothing when 
tried calling out on HF. We tried calling the Maritime Mobile Net, but 
nothing was out there. We had /Winlink/ on the ship that we used for 
e-mail and accessing the Internet to post to blogs and to Facebook, and 
we finally found an e-mail address for the Coast Guard. As a last-ditch 
effort, we used /Winlink/ to e-mail the Coast Guard for help. Within an 
hour, we heard a C-130 plane, and later, a helicopter overhead." 
According to Faunt, it was Walbridge, as master of the ship, who sent 
out the distress messages.

"I don't know how I made it off the ship," Faunt recalled. "I had 
finished serving a long watch, and then we started going down. I was 
exhausted. I had to swim to get to the life raft. The water was full of 
rigging, and here I am, in my Gumby suit, trying to swim. It was so 
difficult. While swimming to the raft, I came up for air and a spar was 
coming at me. I finally found a raft and tried to climb into it, but I 
almost didn't make it, tired as I was. Through the help of my shipmates 
who were already aboard the raft, I got on." The two life rafts were out 
about 100 miles from shore when they were rescued.

The vessel left Connecticut on Thursday, October 25 with a crew of 11 
men and five women, ranging in age from 20-66. After being treated at a 
hospital in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Faunt arrived back home in 
California on Wednesday, October 31. "I'm looking for a new boat to sail 
and a DXpedition to go on," Faunt told the ARRL. "Ham radio got me into 
my position on the /Bounty/, and ham radio got me out alive!"