HMS Bounty has been lost again, not to mutineers this time but to Hurricane Sandy and the Graveyard of the Atlantic. The second Bounty was a faithful replica of the original ship, built for the 1962 movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” from plans still on file at the British Admiralty. Since, it has served as maritime attraction and floating museum, visiting many ports worldwide and logging thousands of miles at sea. The 16 crew members abandoned the foundering ship in two lifeboats Sunday night, and as of midday, 14 are reported safe and two missing. I saw Bounty alongside a wharf in Baltimore Harbor a few years back, and I’m very glad I did.

I also saw a movie once. I don’t remember the title. Why would I? The drama was so ludicrous I was doubled up with laughter. The young child of a pioneer wilderness family is critically ill, so the father strikes out on foot in a Rocky Mountain blizzard to retrieve life-saving medicine. After he departs, a pack of wolves attacks the cabin, with the helpless family inside. In the commotion, an oil lamp is turned over, and fire breaks out. Meanwhile, on the trail, the father slides down a mountainside and injures himself. There he is, freezing and hurt, when a mountain lion comes along. You get the idea. It seems an analogous situation, this one meterological and real, is building off the Atlantic seaboard, and it’s no laughing matter. We all have grown suspicious of television’s excitability when it comes to potential bad weather, but as I read reports this morning, I’m convinced this threat is grave. If it’s any consolation, the movie ended happily, although there was a lot of smoke damage in the cabin. I hope our friends in the northeastern corridor are so lucky.