I got a haunting reminder Thursday of the 2012 sinking of the Bounty during Hurricane Sandy.

The tall ship Roseway, a 137-foot 1925 Gloucester fishing schooner, a National Historic Landmark, tied up at City Pier Thursday, as forecasts of Hurricane Joaquin grew more ominous.

Roseway has a crew of 13 and 21 high school students aboard. The trip, on which the students earn credit at their school, Proctor Academy of New Hampshire, began last week in Gloucester and is scheduled to conclude in San Juan in late November.

The Roseway, according to reports around town of its arrival, was staying only for a few hours, to finish some repairs, then was heading back out.

This was an eerie reminder of the visit to New London by the Bounty back in 2012.

Indeed, the Roseway on Thursday was tied up at the same spot at City Pier as the Bounty, when the Bounty's captain made the fateful decision in late October 2012 to head to sea, to try to outrun Hurricane Sandy.

The ship eventually sank 90 miles off North Carolina, but not before the Coast Guard, in what some say was the most complex and daring rescue in its history, saved 14 of the 16 people aboard.

As the Roseway sat Thursday at City Pier, three years after the Bounty, the forecast this time was almost as foreboding.

I went down to City Pier to chat with the captain to find out whether he, too, might be contemplating an attempt at dodging a hurricane. In any case, I was curious to hear about what would probably be some of the more serious storm prep going on around here, given the circumstances, a tall ship far from its homeport, with so many young people aboard.

I found the affable captain, Aaron Paolino, at work on the project that brought the ship into port, installing a new generator. The students were on shore leave, visiting the Coast Guard Academy.

Paolino told me the students were due back by 5 p.m. — it's a challenge keeping them all on schedule, he said — so that he could get underway.

The storm itinerary, he said, was to begin with anchoring somewhere in New London Harbor overnight. In the morning, he said, he was planning to head toward western Long Island Sound and New York City.

He was especially keen to leave behind the more exposed waters of eastern Long Island Sound.

From there, the plan was, quite decidedly, weather dependent, he said. But he added there was no intention to be out at sea during a hurricane.

Indeed, like most tall ship captains, Paolino knows well the story of the Bounty and its strange departure from New London, heading out to sea as the forecasts of the predicted superstorm darkened.

Authors Michael J. Tougias and Douglas A. Campbell, in their book "Rescue of the Bounty" described the ship's departure from New London that fateful October afternoon, after the captain had offered anyone in the crew a chance to get off. None did.

Dockmaster Barbara Neff, the authors said, was setting up a corn maze on City Pier that day and looked up to see "a stately vessel of ancient proportions departing into the gathering dusk, heading south toward a monster storm."

Paolino said Thursday the forecasts were still unclear about whether, when, where and how hard Joaquin might hit the East Coast. His general plan was to be as close to New York City as possible when that forecast begins to come into clearer focus.

In the event the storm was not going to hit hard anywhere close, he said, the ship might make a port call in New York. If the storm might make a landfall near New York, he said, the students could get off in the city, and he and the crew would probably head up the Hudson River, to get as far as possible out of harm's way.

A preferable location, he said, would be sheltered and fairly shallow. He would prefer to be at anchor rather than at a dock, since the engine could be used to take the tension off the anchor line and the ship wouldn't bang against a fixed pier.

In any case, I felt sure, after my chat with Capt. Paolino, that the Roseway, unlike the Bounty, will not be included among the daring Coast Guard rescue stories told at the National Coast Guard Museum, which some day might be a stone's throw away from where both ships once paused to plan a hurricane strategy.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct