Firstly, present-day shipwrecks mesmerize just about everyone. With modern technological innovations into navigational equipment, better weather predictions and more, any shipwreck in modern times is a truly captivating event. And the following series of events that culminated in a famous ship capsizing and sinking off the coast of the Outer Banks in 2012 was a tragedy seen by people world-wide as it occurred off the coast of North Carolina.

The unfortunate series of events began four days before the ship sank.
weather.gov
It was enroute from Connecticut to its winter mooring location in St. Petersburg, Florida. The only problem: a nasty little hurricane it would need to steer clear of.
A little history on the "most famous" shipwreck in North Carolina reveals the unique and seaworthy vessel was actually commissioned and built for a film studio for a move starring Marlon Brando. It was a replica of the 1787 Royal Navy ship the HMS Bounty.
Flickr/ chikachika72
The large ship was the very first vessel build from scratch for a major motion picture studio, and it was the pride of Metro Goldwyn Mayer as it debuted in the 1962 film "Mutiny on the Bounty."
The movie was filmed in Tahiti and, after filming was completed the ship was slated to be burned.
Wikipedia/Reynold Brown - Brown, Franz/public domain
However, Marlon Brando protested and the ship was saved and bearthed in St. Petersburg, Florida with the intention of becoming a tourist attraction to promote the MGM movie.
Eventually the ship would sail in the Tall Ships exhibitions that traveled the country. And again, it would receive cameos in a series of lower-budget films before landing a role as The Black Pearl in Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
Facebook/Pirates of the Caribbean
From there the ship was used in the "SpongeBob Square Pants Movie," and then underwent a complete retrofit.

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In the fall of 2012, the day arrived to begin the voyage from Connecticut to Florida for the winter.
Flickr/Jeff Self
No one could have known at that point that Hurricane Sandy would become the second largest and most destructive Atlantic hurricane in U.S. history.
Hurricane Sandy began as a mere tropical cyclone off the coast of Jamaica on October 22nd.
Wikipedia/NASA image courtesy LANCE MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC/listed as public domain
By October 26 she had churned into a major destructive force with tropical storm-force winds spanning 900 miles. Hurricane Sandy eventually affected 24 states, including bringing October snowfall to the higher elevations in the Carolinas and West Virginia.
As Bounty left her harbor in Connecticut, the plan was to steer East to avoid Hurricane Sandy.
Flickr/Magic Madzik
But the plans went bad when Sandy turned into such a massive storm. By the time Bounty had reached its location approximately 90 miles off the coast of North Carolina's Outer Banks, she was taking on water...
The date was October 29, 2012. The first calls for help were reportedly sent to the owners of the ship via email from the Captain of Bounty. The organization sent a request to the North Carolina Coast Guard and a C-130 plane was immediately dispatched to get an aerial report on the situation. (The sinking ship is pictured below in this photo taken on October 29, 2012.)
Wikipedia/US Coast Guard/public domain
Within hours, lifeboats had been dropped to save the remaining crew members who were airlifted to safety. Three of the ship's crew had been blown or washed overboard; one was safely recovered alive. Another was recovered, but died soon after in a local hospital. A third was never found even after extensive search attempts.

The modern shipwreck tragedy off the coast of North Carolina is a heartbreaking loss in more ways than one.

To see the Coast Guard's incredible rescue of the crew from the Bounty, view the youtube video below from the U.S. Coast Guard:

Do you remember this tragic event off the coast of North Carolina? Keep reading here to discover why the Outer Banks are known as The Graveyard of the Atlantic.

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