page_title: HMS Bounty
section_title: Discovery of the wreck of the Bounty
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Bounty / Discovery of the wreck of the Bounty
caption_attribution_description: English: THIS IS THE MOST HISTORIC AND FAMOUS EXHIBIT IN THE FIJI MUSEUM. THE BOUNTY WAS BURNED IN BOUNTY BAY, PITCAIRN ISLAND SO THE MUTINEERS COULD NOT CONTEMPLATE RETURNING TO CIVILIZATION
context_page_description: HMS Bounty, also known as HM Armed Vessel Bounty, was a small merchant vessel that the Royal Navy purchased for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to the Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to the West Indies. That mission was never completed owing to a mutiny led by acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian. This incident is now popularly known as the mutiny on the Bounty. The mutineers later burned Bounty while she was moored at Pitcairn Island. An American adventurer rediscovered the remains of the Bounty in 1957; various parts of it have been salvaged since then.
context_section_description: Luis Marden discovered the remains of the Bounty in January 1957. After spotting remains of the rudder (which had been found in 1933 by Parkin Christian, and is still displayed in the Fiji Museum in Suva), he persuaded his editors and writers to let him dive off Pitcairn Island, where the rudder had been found. Despite the warnings of one islander – "Man, you gwen be dead as a hatchet!" – Marden dived for several days in the dangerous swells near the island, and found the remains of the ship: a rudder pin, nails, a ships boat oarlock, fittings and a Bounty anchor that he raised. He subsequently met with Marlon Brando to counsel him on his role as Fletcher Christian in the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. Later in life, Marden wore cuff links made of nails from the Bounty. Marden also dived on the wreck of HMS Pandora and left a Bounty nail with Pandora.
  Some of the Bounty's remains, such as the ballast stones, are still partially visible in the waters of Bounty Bay.
  The last of Bounty's four 4-pounder cannon was recovered in 1998 by an archaeological team from James Cook University and was sent to the Queensland Museum in Townsville to be stabilised through lengthy conservation treatment via electrolysis over a period of nearly 40 months. The gun was subsequently returned to Pitcairn Island, where it has been placed on display in a new community hall.
caption: HMAS Bounty Rudder in the Fiji Museum
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ExifOffset": "78", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "720", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "540"}