What happened to Captain Bligh after the Mutiny on the Bounty?


The mutineers put then-Lieutenant Bligh and eighteen other crew into a small, open boat and set them adrift in the middle of the South Pacific ocean.  Bligh and his men had just a small amount of food and water.  Bligh used his memory of navigation charts to plan a course westward to the Dutch colony of Timor.  

They initially tried stopping at an island to gather supplies.  The island was inhabited, however, and they were attacked.  One crew member was killed and the rest barely escaped.  From then on they dared not stop at any island until reaching the Great Barrier Reef of Australia (then called New Holland by the Europeans).

In a remarkable achievement of seamanship, Bligh and his men sailed and rowed their open boat for 41 days over a distance of 3618 miles, in sometimes harsh weather conditions.  Food and drink had to be strictly rationed, and the men suffered greatly from hunger and thirst.  Except for the death of the crewman at the hands of the islanders, all the remaining crew reached Timor alive.  Sadly, some men died of disease contracted at the colony town of Batavia or on the final return voyage to Europe.  Of the original nineteen men set adrift by the Bounty mutineers, twelve returned alive to England.

Bligh continued his career in the British Navy.  He was assigned a new ship and once again sailed to Tahiti take breadfruit to British colonies in the Caribbean.  This time, the mission was completed successfully.  Bligh commanded additional ships, including fighting in several major naval battles.  In 1805, Bligh was appointed Governor of New South Wales.  He ended his British Naval career as a Vice Admiral.  William Bligh died in London on Dec 12, 1817.