Seattle Now & Then: Bounty replica at Shilshole, 1962
Clay Eals
(Click and click again to enlarge photos)
THEN: Constructed for a movie remake, the Bounty replica drew tens of thousands of visitors to its berth at the Port of Seattle’s Shilshole Bay Marina June 23-28, 1962, during the Seattle World’s Fair. The original Bounty, built in 1784, was destroyed some six years later by fire and sank in the South Seas. (Courtesy Port of Seattle)NOW: The 85-foot Bay Lady, center right, stands (sails!) in for the Bounty replica, close to the same spot it occupied June 23-28, 1962, at the Port of Seattle’s Shilshole Bay Marina. More info: seattlesailingship.com. (Devlin Donnelly, Port of Seattle)
Published in The Seattle Times online on May 28, 2026
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on May 131, 2026
World’s Fair welcomed the majesty of ill-fated Bounty in 1962
By Clay Eals
A futuristic Century 21 theme famously fueled the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. But a fleeting, off-site attraction paid homage to Century 18.
THEN: A tug nudges the Bounty replica to then-Pier 51, near the just-opened Polynesia restaurant on June 22, 1962. Dave Cohn, restaurant owner, offered MGM $800,000 to $1 million to buy and retain it as a waterfront attraction, but MGM declined. The Polynesia closed in 1981, making way for a state ferry terminal expansion. (Courtesy Port of Seattle)
Greeted by rocket salvos, fireboat spray and the cheers of thousands, a majestic blue-and-gold sailing ship emblematic of Great Britain in 1789 plied Elliott Bay beneath a gleaming sun. The floating storybook nestled at then-Pier 51 (site of today’s state ferry terminal), alongside the just-opened Polynesia restaurant.
It was the HMS Bounty. Not the original, but a largely true-to-life replica built in 1960 for use in a cinematic remake of “Mutiny on the Bounty,” the saga of a high-profile shipboard revolt.
THEN: Bob Bunch, with dad Bob, circa 1962. (Courtesy Bob Bunch)
The 118-foot clone, made 33 feet longer than its namesake to accommodate bulky cameras, docked June 22 at the Polynesia, where 10-year-old Bob Bunch and his parents from the Three Tree Point peninsula of Burien climbed aboard.
“The lashings, the masts and what seemed like miles of rope going up and down, all of it was terribly impressive,” Bunch says. “I was always reading stories of pirates and the Navy. I remember thinking it would be a total adventure to go for a sail on that thing in the ocean. The images never left me.”
THEN: The Bounty replica eases through the Ballard locks in 1962 on its way to Lake Washington. The photographer’s son, Bill Whitbeck, 9 at the time and from Connecticut, was visiting family with his parents. Two years later, he saw the same replica at the New York World’s Fair. (Bill Whitbeck Sr.)
The next five-and-a-half days, the replica welcomed visitors at the Port of Seattle’s Shilshole Bay Marina, interrupted only by a June 27 excursion through the Ballard locks to Lake Washington. On its opening weekend, the vessel took on a staggering 38,871 people.
Though linked to the fair, the ship’s Seattle stop was literally a Hollywood promotional vehicle. The 1935 Oscar best-picture winner “Mutiny on the Bounty,” starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, had been a TV perennial since 1956.
Poster for 1935 “Mutiny on the Bounty.” (MGM)Poster for 1962 “Mutiny on the Bounty.” (MGM)
But its three-hour MGM remake with Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard, a notoriously bloated production partly filmed in Tahiti, wouldn’t open until six months after the vessel’s Seattle visit.
The newer movie cost $20 million ($215 million today), of which $750,000 ($8 million) financed the replica. However, the clone’s sojourn to Seattle and around North America didn’t right the cinematic ship. The remake’s winter holiday run tanked, losing $6 million ($65 million).
The replica, for decades an East Coast mainstay, expired in 2012, swallowed by Hurricane Sandy, just as the original Bounty perished in a South Seas fire some 220 years earlier. Nevertheless, the allure endures.
“The power and romance of these ships is timeless,” says Noah Waldman, owner and captain of the Seattle waterfront-based tour vessel Bay Lady. “They always activate our imaginations. You can feel what it was like to be a sailor in the age of sail.”
WEB EXTRAS
Big thanks to Devlin Donnelly for his invaluable help with this installment! Be sure to visit his Port of Seattle blog post for more details about the replica visit in 1962. And don’t miss this 8-minute video backgrounder shared by Devlin: “HMS Bounty Sails Again.”
To see Clay Eals‘ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos while hearing this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.
And scroll to the bottom for a special addition from the former mayor of Des Moines and the president of the Des Moines Historical Society, Richard Kennedy!
THEN: A girl tries the wheel of the replica as a crowd tours it in June 1962 at Shilshole Bay Marina. (Courtesy Robin Adams)THEN: Sailors on the replica relax during its June 1962 Seattle visit. A 10-year-old at the time, Bob Bunch, today of Roslyn, recalls their “correct” garb: “They looked like they were islanders.” (Courtesy Bill Cotter)THEN: The stern of the replica in June 1962 at Shilshole Bay Marina. The original Bounty was named for the plentiful South Seas breadfruit plants it sought for enslaved people on British plantations in the Caribbean. (Courtesy Robin Adams)THEN: A sign posted aboard the replica at Shilshole in June 1962 explains its background. (Courtesy Bill Cotter)THEN: Welcomed by the Seattle fireboat Duwamish in June 1962, the Bounty replica crosses Elliott Bay. That week, tall ships from Japan (Nippon Maru and Kaiwo Maru) and Chile (Esmeralda) also visited Seattle. (Courtesy Port of Seattle)THEN: Visitors prepare to board the Bounty replica June 23-28, 1962, at Shilshole Bay Marina. No Seattle-based photos show the replica in full sail, likely because while its 10,000 square feet of hand-sewn canvas could harness wind power, it was propelled by two 375-horsepower John Deere diesel engines. (Courtesy Robin Adams)THEN: A tug nudges the Bounty replica to then-Pier 51 (today’s state ferry terminal), near the just-opened Polynesia restaurant on June 22, 1962. (Courtesy Port of Seattle)
THEN: The Chase sisters Jenny, 3, and Katy, 2, then of Bellevue pose on the deck of the Bounty replica June 23-27 at Shilshole Bay Marina. (Tom Chase)
