Bounty Photos Found

I've been doing a big shovel out/remodel of my office the past few days and came across these photos which I had forgotten about. They must have been taken about ten years ago when I was visiting Robin Walbridge aboard Bounty in Portsmouth, VA. I was working on the book Reign of Iron about the Monitor and the Merrimack. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard would not let me in to see the dry dock where USS Merrimack had been converted to CSS Virginia, so Robin (Bounty's captain) suggested we take Bounty down the river so I could get photos. I climbed up into the main top and Robin took the ship past the dry dock and I snapped away. The folks at the naval shipyard were not happy to see the photos (the dry dock is in a classified area of the yard) but there was nothing indicating you could not take photos from the water. I was hoping they would arrest me (great publicity!) but beyond a few terse words over the phone, that was all I heard.

That kind of thing, the eagerness to help out, the mischievousness, was so typical of Robin. I love the picture of him standing on the rail. I think that will always be the way I remember him, standing there, conning the big blue boat into a tight spot with a bare minimum of maneuvering and fuss.

For those of you who don't know, Robin was lost at sea when Bounty went down in Hurricane Sandy. He is very much missed by the many, many people he touched.