No, I don't think the Captain was an idiot. But he was willing to turn a blind eye to documented conditions on his ship which compromised her safety. Then he had the bad judgment to take such a ship out to sea when there was a well-publicized hurricane coming in from the South. Finally, he made the fatally bad decision to try to cross in front of this advancing hurricane. Calling the Captain an idiot lets him off too lightly, in my opinion. He may well have been criminally negligent. I expect a very harsh judgement from the Coast Guard Inquiry Board.

And I would hope that former Bounty crew members and other vintage ship crew members would not turn a blind eye to the lessons that should be learned from this unnecessary disaster.

I may come up with an angry song, finally, and it may well be titled "Turning a Blind Eye to the Storm." There's already a fine ballad titled "Bounty Farewell."

Charley Noble, still on his rant