Having looked more closely at the initial references you linked me to before even glancing at the latest ones I now realize that they are multiple and all say the same thing so I ve redacted what I had originally said about it possibly being a typo one or two typos are possible consistently being wrong multiple times is not All I can state is that the novel has Elphinstone as the rank I stated but quite possibly that was a literary tweak in order to make Christian the only Master s Mate I m certainly not going to claim the fictional variant is correct and all the non fictional versions are wrong Now that I look at Elphinstone s and Churchill s ages Elphinstone at 36 is 8 years older than Churchill at 28 so it is unlikely but by no means impossible that Elphinstone was junior in rank to Churchill To be honest I m a bit confused why there would be 2 Master s Mates on the same ship with so small a crew is that normal That would make it the only rank on the Bounty for which there was more than one instance other than quartermaster and of course able seaman Anyway I don t want to get stuck on this issue I had asked who you the other Master s Mate was and you told me My response to your reply is now a bit of a digression but hopefully an informative one Let s move on Granted that Elphinstone is indeed a Master s Mate the number of crew not berthed in the forecastle in point 5 below is now 15 not 14 which is still greater than 13 66 16 144 18