Navy 'disappointed' after HMS Bounty auction

The Royal Navy has said it is "disappointed" after a relic from HMS Bounty was sold at auction, despite attempts to block the sale.

The large piece of copper from the ship, which was at the heart of the infamous mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, fetched £3,800 at a sale run by Hanson Auctioneers earlier.

The item was retrieved from Pitcairn Island by a serviceman dispatched from RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, in the 1970s.

The navy had attempted to postpone the sale and claimed the item belonged to the Crown.

Matt Crowson, a consultant for the auctioneer, said: "We haven't been presented with any clear indication of on what basis the Royal Navy believe the artefact should not be sold."

The copper relic, which includes a patch of barnacles, was displayed on Mr Coleman's mantlepiece for decades, his family said.

The lot also included handwritten logs from Mr Coleman's time on Pitcairn.

HMS Bounty, also known as HM Armed Vessel Bounty, was built in Hull and purchased by the navy in 1787. It was sent to the South Pacific under the command of William Bligh, but members of his crew, led by Fletcher Christian, launched a mutiny and sailed the ship to Pitcairn.

Mr Coleman was an RAF chief technician in Lincolnshire when he was sent to Pitcairn in 1973 to set up a radio station on the island, where descendants of the mutineers still live.

He investigated the wreck of the Bounty, which was scuttled off the island in 1790, and helped raise one of the cannons from the seabed.

The mutiny on the Bounty is considered to be one of the most notorious events in maritime history.

Bligh and loyal members of his crew were cast adrift in a small open boat, but navigated 4,000 miles (6,500 km) to the port of Kupang, in what is now Indonesia.

The story has been retold in three major films, with stars including Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson.

A representative for the Royal Navy told the BBC: "We are disappointed an artefact from HMS Bounty has been sold at auction.

"We strongly discourage the unauthorised removal of artefacts from military wrecks, which form part of the UK's heritage and, in many cases, the final resting place for our nation's service personnel."

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