Captain William Bligh is a man known now for his remarkable abilities as a ship
captain and navigator. He is lesser known for the fact that he was also
victim to 3 mutinies in his career - although, one of those events in and
of itself has become the star of legend and cinema…the mutiny on the HMS Bounty…
The reason why Captain Bligh ended up on the HMS Bounty is wholly due to his
impressive skill and accomplishments thus far. Born to a customs officer in 1754,
Bligh joined the Royal Navy in 1770 to kick off his career at sea. Less than a decade later,
the young seaman would be so honored as to join famous explorer James Cook on one
of his expeditions before deciding to enter into private service to work as a commander
on merchant ships in the West Indies. He was still in his 20s yet had already built himself a
mighty reputation by the time the HMS Bounty was being readied for its fateful trip.
But, Bligh’s reputation wasn’t entirely positive. He was a good seaman and able captain,
but he was harsh, oppressive, and often cruel in his treatment. The insults he would frequently
sling at his men and the extreme punishments he dished out were a cause for common displeasure
in his crews, and if you even made one mistake, you could become the next target of his abuses.
Nevertheless, the British authorities were quite fond of Bligh. Thus,
when a captain was needed for the HMS Bounty, he was called upon to fill the position…
It was at the request of slave-owning plantation owners of the West Indies
that the Bounty was meant to be sent to Tahiti. After the American Revolution and
subsequent decrease in food exports from the United States to Britain and its holdings,
many slaveowners began to complain that they were lacking hardy enough food that they could
feed their slaves. Hoping to solve this problem, English botanist and fellow voyager of James Cook,
Sir Joseph Banks suggested that Tahitian breadfruit be utilized. After much convincing, the
king finally sponsored a voyage by the HMS Bounty to journey to Tahiti, collect breadfruit saplings,
and transport them back to the West Indies. And with that, the ship was off, and Captain William
Bligh was inching ever closer to falling prey to the first, and most infamous, of his 3 mutinies…
The HMS Bounty took off from the English shores in December of 1787, but it wouldn’t arrive at
Tahiti for another 10 months, finally reaching its destination in October of 1788. The problem
with this was that October was far from the right season for the breadfruit saplings they needed,
and as a result, Bligh and his men were forced to stay in Tahiti for the following 5 months.
Bligh saw this period as just another stretch of his journey and thus duty as a captain. His crew,
however, had quite a different perspective. They treated the months after their docking
as a vacation, enjoying the locals’ hospitality, desirable climate, and the Tahitian women many
took as temporary “wives” or intimate companions. Bligh found all of this deeply agitating,
but then again, he wasn’t very satisfied with his crew to begin with. In fact, he strongly
disliked many of them. The captain viewed them as being made up of extremely poor seamen and some
even downright incompetent. Although Bligh didn’t despise all of his men, one in particular that he
seemed to bicker with the most as of late was his good friend and first mate, Fletcher Christian.
The trip to Tahiti and the days following its departure had been
marked by repeated bouts of arguing between the captain and his first mate,
and particularly vile abuse from the former who referred to Christian as a "cowardly
rascal". It was said that Bligh at one point even verbally battered his friend to tears,
and in another late-night tirade pushed Christian to snap, pleading to his captain saying, "Sir,
your abuse is so bad that I cannot do my duty with any pleasure. I have been in hell for weeks with
you." Yet, Bligh couldn’t seem to take a hint, or at least was incapable of controlling his temper,
as it was also stated that he would follow up his blowouts with Christian by innocently
inviting his friend to dine with him that same day. His brutal treatment of the men may have
meant nothing to him, but to them, it was beginning to wear down their tolerance.
With many of the men already missing their life back in Tahiti and growing increasingly
fed up with their captain’s slander, all eyes turned to Fletcher Christian. Tensions seemed
to reach their boiling point when the first mate began contemplating a suicidal escape,
intending to leave the Bounty by raft and sail who knows where - just anywhere that
his cruel friend wasn’t. Thankfully, for the sake of his life, Christian was convinced to
stay by 9 of his fellow crewmen who were just as tired of Bligh’s oppression. Thus,
Christian’s escape plan was now turning into a deliberate rebellion…
In the early morning hours of April 28, 1789, tensions at last boiled over. According to Bligh,
"Just before sun-rising, Mr. Christian, with the master at arms, gunner's mate, and Thomas Burket,
seaman, came into my cabin while I was asleep, and seizing me, tied my hands with a cord behind my
back, and threatened me with instant death, if I spoke or made the least noise." A mutiny had begun
just 23 days back out to sea, and Bligh’s only friend aboard was the ringleader. Under threat
of a bayonet and 10 angry men, Bligh and 18 of his loyal crewmen were forced on deck and slowly
boarded onto the Bounty’s launch. As the chaos played out, Bligh began pleading with Christian,
utterly shocked by what he viewed as a completely unexpected betrayal. His persuasion wasn’t
working, but his reminders that, back in England, he had even bounced Christian’s children upon his
own knee were not going unnoticed by his old friend. Christian struggled to fight back his
emotion as he replied, “I am in hell - I am in hell.” The damage had already been done…
In total, 22 of the ship’s crew were loyal to Bligh, but 4 of those were forced to stay aboard
the ship. The other 18 were crammed on the 23-foot boat with Bligh and scarce supplies. A tool chest,
lines, sails, 20 gallons of water, 150 pounds of bread, and other meager stores were given to the
men along with 4 cutlasses tossed in as the boat was set afloat. As the mutiny was then
brought to a successful end, Bligh called out to the 4 men left aboard who had stood by his side,
“Never fear, my lads! I’ll do you justice if I ever reach England!”...
Now, a simple voyage to retrieve and deliver cargo
had split a ship’s crew in two, and two separate journeys would follow…
Captain William Bligh and his men were more or less given a death sentence. No
one anticipated that they would survive. No one, of course, except for Bligh himself.
Someway, somehow, the captain managed to navigate his tiny, overcrowded vessel across
the Pacific first to Tofua where they were able to replenish their much-needed supplies,
and then another few weeks until they reach Timor on June 14, 1789 - nearly
4,000 miles from their starting point. Almost a year later, Bligh would, in fact, reach England.
And as if that’s not impressive enough, he would later go on to again sail a ship to Tahiti to
collect breadfruit saplings, which he would this time successfully deliver to the West Indies.
As for Christian and his mutineers, their story is just as stunning…
At first, they returned to Tahiti to continue their lavish lifestyles with their new “wives”.
But, it didn’t take long for many of the men to realize the risk of getting caught once the
British knew what had happened. Subsequently, while 16 of the crewmen insisted on staying in
Tahiti, Christian and 8 of the other mutineers opted to reboard the Bounty with 6 Tahitian men,
a dozen women, and a child, sailing now in search of a safe haven to camp out. Exploring
the Pacific, the group stumbled across the uninhabited, volcanic Pitcairn Island over 1,000
miles east of Tahiti. Here, they made the daring decision to strip and burn their vessel in hopes
of avoiding being detected by passing Brits, and with brave confidence that this isolated
island would surely work as their new safe haven and thus an escape boat would not be needed.
Back on Tahiti, the remaining mutineers were predictably captured by the Britsih,
and 3 would soon be hanged. On Pitcairn, it's debatable whether they faired much better.
Between disease and fatal internal strife, all but one of the men of the settlement would
die in short order. That one surviving man, John Adams, recounted the tale to a group of
Americans who stumbled across the colony of now only women and children after spotting smoke from
a cooking fire while sailing by on their whaling vessel. Over a decade later, the British sent
their own ship to meet Adams on the island and granted him amnesty for his role in the mutiny.
In 1831, there was an attempt to resettle the Pitcairn Islanders to Tahiti, but having grown
very attached to their new home - or native land for some - they returned not long after.
Recognizing that this colony was far from disappearing, in 1838, the British thus
decided to incorporate the Pitcairn Islands, 4 in total, into the British Empire. With this,
the colony’s population continued to multiply and less than two decades later,
the 2-square mile island was now home to almost 200. Insisting that this was far too
many people for such a small plot of land, the Brits once more moved the Pitcairn Islanders,
this time to the former penal colony of Norfolk over 3,000 miles away. Many would
yet again return home to Pitcairn, but others, this time, opted to stay in their new settlement.
Today, both Pitcairn and Norfolk are home to the descendants of the
HMS Bounty mutineers. And Captain Bligh, remains a seafaring icon…