Gap-year teen relives voyage

The crew hope to recreate Bligh's journey. Photo / Supplied

BRITAIN: Last-minute travel plans rarely come more spontaneous or adventurous than those of Chris Wilde.

The gap-year British teenager was last month casting around for something to do when he read a newspaper article appealing for a young adventurer to step into the breach to recreate one of the most famous and gruelling sea voyages of all time: the 6000km open-boat journey of William Bligh after he and his loyal men were cut adrift following the mutiny on the Bounty.

Despite having never heard of the celebrated mariner, or even having had any sailing experience, the 18-year-old from Warwick will set off this month for the seven-week voyage between Tonga and Timor aboard a 7.6m boat armed with the same meagre provisions carried in 1789 by Bligh and his 18 men.

Instead, the four-man crew will supplement two weeks' supply of food and water with harvested rain and fish caught on 18th-century tackle.

They will sail the Talisker Bounty Boat just as Bligh sailed the original Bounty: with a single sail, an old-fashioned sextant and an antique pocket watch.

"The thing I am most concerned about is the lack of food because I like to eat," said Wilde.

The crew hopes to raise £150,000 ($320,000) for the Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease.

The project is the brainchild of the Australian adventurer Don McIntyre, 55, who said it did not matter the young Briton had no sailing experience.

During the voyage they expect to encounter 45-knot winds and 5m waves. McIntyre hoped the project would help people appreciate Bligh's incredible feat.

Far from being the cruel man of myth, the then-lieutenant is now regarded as a humane leader, if a little dogmatic.

- INDEPENDENT