The Bounty PDF: Mutiny on the High Seas

# The Bounty, Part One When the captain of His Majesty's ship *Bounty* spoke to the men on watch a little after midnight, everything seemed normal. Three weeks before, on April 4, 1789, Captain Bligh and his crew had embarked for the West Indies from the tropical South Pacific island of Tahiti. For...

# The Bounty, Part One When the captain of His Majesty's ship *Bounty* spoke to the men on watch a little after midnight, everything seemed normal. Three weeks before, on April 4, 1789, Captain Bligh and his crew had embarked for the West Indies from the tropical South Pacific island of Tahiti. For six months, they had collected breadfruit plants, which grew in profusion on Tahiti. The purpose of the voyage was to transport over a thousand of these plants, already carefully stowed on board, to the West Indies. They were to be grown as a food crop on the large plantations there. Captain Bligh probably should have realized that not all was as serene as it seemed. He knew that his men had been loath to leave the pleasant island life to return to the more rigid structure of life aboard ship. He had, in fact, been dissatisfied with the slovenly habits they had developed while the *Bounty* had lain at anchor. Some of the crew failed to care properly for the sails. Others had pilfered from the ship because no one was keeping proper watches. Furthermore, Captain Bligh seemed to have lost confidence in his chief mate, Fletcher Christian. It had been Christian's lackadaisical attitude, Bligh believed, that had resulted in the sailors' neglecting their duties on Tahiti. Bligh had rebuked Christian for failing to supervise the men properly. If this had rankled the chief mate, Bligh had not perceived any change in him when the two had dined together. Despite these annoyances, Bligh's mood was calm when he returned to his cabin. He had no inkling of what was about to happen as, rocked by the gentle motion of the ship, he fell asleep. Had he been prudent, he might have posted a guard outside his cabin. As it was, its door was not even locked. Shortly before dawn, the captain was awakened abruptly. Fletcher Christian, accompanied by several crew members, burst in and informed him that they had taken over the ship. They had confiscated all the weapons on board. They had also locked up the eighteen crew members who remained loyal to the captain. Bligh warned those who held him prisoner that for this audacious act they would all be hanged. His warning, however, had no effect. Later that morning, he and the loyal crew members were pushed into an open boat. They were permitted to take some weapons with them and were given a small quantity of food and water. Bligh watched helplessly as Christian and the remaining crew members on board sailed off in the *Bounty*. He and the other passengers were left in the tiny boat to their fate in the middle of the vast ocean. Three movies have been made of the mutiny that took place on the *Bounty* on the morning of April 28, 1789. All three depict Captain Bligh as a cruel man who treated his crew badly and was himself responsible for what happened. However, by using information in court documents, letters, and diaries written by people who participated in the events, several historians argue that Bligh was a conscientious naval officer. He was no stricter than other sea captains of the time. While he had ordered several men flogged twelve or even twenty-four lashes for being disobedient, this was the usual punishment at that time in the British navy for quite minor offenses. To this day, there is no unanimous explanation for this event that changed the lives of these men forever.