Peter Heywood Peter Heywood ( 6 June 1772 – 10 February 1831 ) was a British naval officer who was on board during the mutiny of 28 April 1789 . He was later captured in Tahiti , tried and condemned to death as a mutineer , but subsequently pardoned . He resumed his naval career and eventually retired with the rank of post - captain , after 29 years of honourable service . The son of a prominent Isle of Man family with strong naval connections , Heywood joined " Bounty " under Lieutenant William Bligh at the age of 15 and , although unranked was given the privileges of a junior officer . " Bounty " left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit from the Pacific , and arrived in Tahiti late in 1788 . Relations between Bligh and certain of his officers , notably Fletcher Christian , became strained , and worsened during the five months that " Bounty " remained in Tahiti . Shortly after the ship began its homeward voyage Christian and his discontented followers seized Bligh and took control of the vessel . Bligh and 19 loyalists were set adrift in an open boat ; Heywood was among those who remained with " Bounty " . Later , he and 15 others left the ship and settled in Tahiti , while " Bounty " sailed on , ending its voyage at Pitcairn Island . Bligh , after an epic open - boat journey , eventually reached England , where he implicated Heywood as one of the mutiny ' s prime instigators . In 1791 Heywood and his companions were captured in Tahiti by the search vessel , and held in irons for transportation to England . The subsequent journey was prolonged and eventful ; " Pandora " was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef , four of Heywood ' s fellow prisoners were drowned , and Heywood himself was fortunate to survive . In September 1792 Heywood was court - martialed and with five others was sentenced to hang . However , in Heywood ' s case the court recommended mercy , and he was pardoned by King George III . In a rapid change of fortune he found himself favoured by senior officers , and after the resumption of his career received a series of promotions that gave him his first command at the age of 27 and made him a post - captain at 31 . He remained in the navy until 1816 , building a respectable career as a hydrographer , and then enjoyed a long and peaceful retirement . The extent of Heywood ' s true guilt in the mutiny has been clouded by contradictory statements and possible false testimony . During his trial powerful family connections worked on his behalf , and he later benefited from the Christian family ' s generally fruitful efforts to demean Bligh ' s character and present the mutiny as an understandable reaction to an unbearable tyranny . Contemporary press reports , and more recent commentators , have contrasted Heywood ' s pardon with the fate of his fellow prisoners who were hanged , all lower - deck sailors without wealth or family influence . Early life . Peter Heywood was born in 1772 at The Nunnery , in Douglas , Isle of Man . He was the fifth of the 11 children ( six boys and five girls ) of Peter John Heywood and his wife Elizabeth Spedding . The Heywood ancestry can be traced back to the 12th century ; a prominent forebear was Peter " Powderplot " Heywood , who arrested Guy Fawkes after the 1605 plot to blow up the English parliament . On his mother ' s side Peter was distantly related to Fletcher Christian ' s family , which had been established on the Isle of Man for centuries . In 1773 , when Peter was a year old , Peter John Heywood was forced by a financial crisis to sell The Nunnery and leave the island . The family lived for several years on the British mainland in Whitehaven before the father ' s appointment as agent for the Duke of Atholl ' s Manx properties brought them back to Douglas . There was a tradition in the family of naval and military service , and in 1786 , when he was 14 , Heywood left St Bees School on the mainland to join , a harbour - bound training vessel at Plymouth . In August 1787 Heywood was offered a berth on the " Bounty " , for an extended cruise to the Pacific Ocean under the command of Lieutenant William Bligh . Heywood ' s recommendation came from Richard Betham , a family friend who was also Bligh ' s father - in - law . The Heywood family at this time was in deep financial trouble , Peter John Heywood having been dismissed by the Duke for gross mismanagement and embezzlement of funds . Betham wrote to Bligh : " his Family have fallen into a great deal of Distress on account of their father losing the Duke of Atholl ' s business " , and urged Bligh not to desert them in their adversity . Bligh was happy to oblige his father - in - law , and invited the young Heywood to stay with him in Deptford while the ship was prepared for the forthcoming voyage . On HMS " Bounty " . Outward journey . " Bounty ' s " mission was to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti , for transportation to the West Indies as a new source of food for the slave plantations . Bligh , a skilled navigator , had travelled to Tahiti in 1776 , as Captain James Cook ' s sailing master during the explorer ' s final voyage . " Bounty " was a small vessel , in overall length , with a complement of 46 men crammed into limited accommodation . Heywood was one of several " young gentlemen " aboard ship who were mustered as able seamen but ate and slept with their social equals in the cockpit . His distant kinsman Fletcher Christian served as master ' s mate on the ill - fated voyage . Bligh ' s orders were to enter the Pacific by rounding Cape Horn . After collecting sufficient breadfruit plants from the Tahitian islands he was to sail westward , through the Endeavour Strait and across the Indian Ocean . Entering the $ 3 he would continue on to the West Indies , incidentally completing a circumnavigation . " Bounty " left London on 15 October 1787 , and after being delayed at Spithead awaiting final sailing orders was held up by more bad weather ; it was 23 December before the ship was finally away . This long hiatus caused " Bounty " to arrive at Cape Horn much later in the season than planned and to encounter very severe weather . Unable to make progress against westerly gales and enormous seas , Bligh finally turned the ship and headed east . He would now have to take the alternative , much longer route to the Pacific , sailing first to Cape Town and then south of Australia and New Zealand , before working northwards to Tahiti . Following its new route , " Bounty " reached Cape Town on 24 May 1788 . Here , Heywood wrote a long letter to his family describing the voyage to date , with vivid descriptions of life at sea . Initially , Heywood relates , sailing had been " in the most pleasurable weather imaginable " . In describing the attempts to round Cape Horn he writes : " I suppose there never were seas , in any part of the known world , to compare with those we met . . . for height , and length of swell ; the oldest seamen on board never saw anything to equal that . . . " Bligh ' s decision to turn east was , Heywood records , " to the great joy of everyone on board " . Historian Greg Dening records a story , unmentioned in Heywood ' s letter , that at the height of the Cape Horn storms Bligh had punished Heywood for some minor wrongdoing by ordering him to climb the mast and to " stay there beyond the point of all endurance " ; this , Dening concedes , was possibly a later fabrication to discredit Bligh . In Tahiti . " Bounty " sailed from Cape Town on 1 July , reached Tasmania on 19 August , and arrived at Matavai Bay , Tahiti , on 26 October . The latter stages of this voyage , however , saw signs of trouble between Bligh and his officers and crew ; rows and disagreements grew steadily more frequent . On arrival , Heywood and Christian were assigned to a shore camp which would act as a nursery for the breadfruit plants . They would live here throughout the Tahiti sojourn , a " situation of comfort and privilege " which , according to historian Richard Hough , was much envied by those required to spend their nights on the ship . Whether crew were ashore or on board , however , duties during " Bounty ' s " five months ' stay in Tahiti were relatively light . Some men took regular partners from the native women , while others led promiscuous lives ; both Christian and Heywood are listed among the officers and men treated for venereal infections . Despite the relaxed atmosphere , relations between Bligh and his men , and particularly between Bligh and Christian , continued to deteriorate . Christian was routinely humiliated by the captain — often in front of the crew and the native Tahitians — for real or imagined slackness , while severe punishments were handed out to men whose carelessness had led to the loss or theft of equipment . Flogging s , rarely administered during the outward voyage , now became a common occurrence ; as a consequence , three men deserted the ship . They were quickly recaptured , and a search of their belongings revealed a list of names which included those of Christian and Heywood . Bligh confronted the pair and accused them of complicity in the desertion plot , which they strenuously denied ; without further corroboration Bligh could not act against them . As the date for departure grew closer , Bligh ' s outbursts against his officers became more frequent . One witness reported that " Whatever fault was found , Mr Christian was sure to bear the brunt . " Tensions rose among the men , who faced the prospect of a long and dangerous voyage , that would take them through the uncharted Endeavour Strait and then many months of hard sailing . Bligh was impatient to be away , but in Hough ' s words he " failed to anticipate how his company would react to the severity and austerity of life at sea . . . after five dissolute , hedonistic months at Tahiti " . On 5 April , " Bounty " finally weighed anchor and made for the open sea . Mutiny . Seizure of " Bounty " . For three weeks , " Bounty " sailed westward , and early on 28 April was lying off the island of Tofua in the Friendly Islands ( Tonga ) . Christian was officer of the watch ; Bligh ' s behaviour towards him had grown increasingly hostile , and Christian was now prepared to take over the ship , with the help of a group of armed seamen who were willing to follow him . Shortly after 5 : 15 am Bligh was seized and brought on deck , naked from the waist down , wearing only his nightshirt , and with his hands bound . There followed hours of confusion as the majority of the crew sought to grasp the situation and decide how they should react . Finally , at about 10 am , Bligh and 19 loyalists were placed in the ship ' s launch , a open boat , with minimal supplies and navigation instruments , and cast adrift . Heywood was among those who remained on board . Not all the 25 men who remained on " Bounty " were mutineers ; Bligh ' s launch was overloaded , and some who stayed with the ship did so under duress . " Never fear , lads , I ' ll do you justice if ever I reach England " , Bligh is reported as saying . With regard to Heywood , however , Bligh was convinced that the young man was as guilty as Christian . Bligh ' s first detailed comments on the mutiny are in a letter to his wife Betsy , in which he names Heywood as " one of the ringleaders " , adding : " I have now reason to curse the day I ever knew a Christian or a Heywood or indeed a Manks man . Bligh ' s later official account to the Admiralty lists Heywood with Christian , Edward Young and George Stewart as the mutiny ' s leaders , describing Heywood as a young man of abilities for whom he had felt a particular regard . To the Heywood family Bligh wrote : " His baseness is beyond all description . " Members of the crew would later provide conflicting accounts of Heywood ' s actions during the mutiny . Boatswain William Cole testified that Heywood had been detained on the ship against his will . Ship ' s carpenter William Purcell thought that Heywood ' s ambiguous behaviour during the critical hours — he had been seen briefly holding a cutlass — was due to his youth and the excitement of the moment , and that he had no hand in the uprising itself . On the other hand , Midshipman John Hallett reported that Bligh , with a bayonet at his breast and his hands tied , had addressed a remark to Heywood who had " laughed , turned round and walked away " . Another midshipman , Thomas Hayward , claimed he had asked Heywood his intentions and been told by the latter that he would remain with the ship , from which Hayward assumed that his messmate had sided with the mutineers . After the departure of Bligh ' s launch , Christian turned " Bounty " eastward in search of a remote haven on which he and the mutineers could settle . He had in mind the island of Tubuai , 300 miles south of Tahiti , partly mapped by Cook . Christian intended to pick up women , male servants and livestock from Tahiti , to help establish the settlement . As " Bounty " sailed slowly towards Tubuai , Bligh ' s launch , overcoming many dangers and hardships , made its way steadily towards civilisation and reached Coupang ( now Kupang ) , on Timor , on 14 June 1789 . Here Bligh gave his first report of the mutiny , while awaiting a ship to take him back to England . Fugitive . A month ' s sailing brought " Bounty " to Tubuai on 28 May 1789 . Despite a hostile reception from the island ' s natives Christian spent several days surveying the land and selecting a site for a fort before taking " Bounty " on to Tahiti . When they reached Matavai Bay Christian concocted a story that he , Bligh and Captain Cook were founding a new settlement at Aitutaki . Cook ' s name ensured generous gifts of livestock and other goods , and on 16 June the well - provisioned " Bounty " sailed back to Tubuai with nearly 30 Tahitians , some of whom had been taken aboard by deception . The attempt to establish a colony on Tubuai was unsuccessful ; the repeated raids by the mutineers for " wives " and the near - mutinous dissatisfaction of the duped Tahitians wrecked Christian ' s plans . On 18 September " Bounty " sailed back to Matavai Bay for the final time . Heywood and 15 others now decided that they would remain in Tahiti and risk the consequences of discovery , while Christian , with eight mutineers and a number of Tahitian men and women , took off in " Bounty " for an unrevealed destination . Before departing , Christian left messages for his family with Heywood , recounting the story of the mutiny and emphasising that he alone was responsible . On Tahiti Heywood and his companions set about organising their lives . The largest group , led by James Morrison , began building a schooner , to be named " Resolution " after Cook ' s ship . Matthew Thompson and former master - at - arms Charles Churchill chose to lead drunken and generally dissolute lives which ended in the violent deaths of both . Heywood preferred quiet domesticity in a small house with a Tahitian wife , studying the Tahitian language and fathering a daughter . Over a period of 18 months he gradually adopted native manners of dress , and was heavily tattooed around the body . Heywood later explained : " I was tattooed not to gratify my own desires , but theirs " , adding that in Tahiti a man without tattoos was an outcast . " I always made it a maxim when I was in Rome to act as Rome did . " What Dening describes as an " arcadian existence " ended on 23 March 1791 , with the arrival of the search ship . Heywood ' s first reaction to the ship ' s appearance was , he later wrote , " the utmost joy " . As the ship anchored he rode out in a canoe to identify himself . However , his reception , like that of the others who came aboard voluntarily , was frosty ; Captain Edward Edwards , " Pandora ' s " commander , made no distinctions among the former " Bounty " men ; all became prisoners , and were manacled and taken below . Prisoner . " Pandora " voyage . Within a few days all the 14 surviving fugitives in Tahiti had surrendered or been captured . Among " Pandora ' s " officers was former " Bounty " midshipman Thomas Hayward . Heywood ' s hopes that his former shipmate would verify his innocence were quickly dashed . Hayward , " . . . like all worldlings raised a little in life , received us very coolly , and pretended ignorance of our affairs . " " Pandora " remained at Tahiti for five weeks while Captain Edwards tried without success to obtain information on " Bounty ' s " whereabouts . A cell was built on " Pandora ' s " quarterdeck , a structure known as " Pandora ' s Box " where the prisoners , legs in irons and wrists in handcuffs , were to be confined for almost five months . Heywood wrote : " The heat . . . was so intense that the sweat frequently ran in streams to the scuppers , and produced maggots in a short time . . . and the two necessary tubs which were constantly kept in place helped to render our situation truly disagreeable . " " Pandora " left Tahiti on 8 May 1791 to search for Christian and the " Bounty " among the thousands of southern Pacific islands . Apart from a few spars — which had probably floated from Tubuai — discovered at Palmerston Island ( Avarau ) , no traces of the ship could be found . Physical attacks from natives were frequent ; early in August Edwards abandoned the search and headed for the Dutch East Indies via the Torres Strait . Knowledge of these waters and the surrounding reefs was minimal ; on 29 August the ship ran aground on the outer Great Barrier Reef and began to fill with water . Three of the prisoners in " Pandora ' s box " were let out and ordered to assist the crew at the pumps . In the subsequent struggle to save the ship the rest of the men in " Pandora ' s Box " were ignored as the regular crew went about their efforts to prevent the ship from foundering . At dawn it was clear that their efforts were in vain ; the officers agreed that the vessel could not be saved and orders were then given to abandon ship . The armourer was ordered into the " box " to knock off the remaining prisoners ' leg irons and shackles ; however , the ship sank before he had finished . Heywood , stripped naked , was one of the last to get out of the cell ; four prisoners , including Heywood ' s best friend George Stewart , were drowned , as were 31 of the regular crew . The 99 survivors , including ten prisoners , recovered on a nearby island where they stayed for two nights before embarking on an open - boat journey which largely followed Bligh ' s course of two years earlier . The prisoners were mostly kept bound hand and foot on the slow passage to Coupang , which they reached on 17 September . Throughout this long ordeal Heywood somehow managed to hang on to his prayer book , and used it to jot down details of dates , places and events during his captivity . He recorded that at Coupang he and his fellow - prisoners were placed in the stocks and confined in the fortress before being sent to Batavia ( now Jakarta ) on the first leg of the voyage back to England . During a seven - week stay in Batavia confined aboard a Dutch East India Company ship , most of the prisoners , including Heywood , were allowed on deck only twice . On 25 December 1791 they were taken aboard a Dutch ship , " Vreedenberg " , for passage to Europe via Cape Town . Still in the charge of Captain Edwards , the prisoners were kept in irons for most of the way . At the Cape they were eventually transferred to a British warship , , which set sail for England on 5 April 1792 . On 19 June the ship arrived in Portsmouth where the prisoners were moved to the guardship . Portsmouth . Bligh had landed in England on 14 June 1790 to public acclaim , and was quickly promoted to post - captain . In the following months he wrote his account of the mutiny , and on 22 October was honourably acquitted at court martial of responsibility for the " Bounty ' s " loss . Early in 1791 he was appointed to command a new breadfruit expedition , which left London on 3 August of that year , before any news of the capture of Heywood and the others had reached London . Bligh would be gone for more than two years , and would thus be absent from the court martial proceedings that awaited the returned mutineers . Following Heywood ' s arrival in Portsmouth his family sought help from their wide circle of influential friends , and set out to secure the best available legal counsel . Most active on Heywood ' s behalf was his older sister Hester ( " Nessy " ) , who gave her brother unqualified support , writing to him on 3 June : " If the transactions of that day were as Mr . Bligh represented them , such is my conviction of your worth and honor that I will without hesitation stake my life on your innocence . If on the contrary you were concerned in such a conspiracy against your commander , I shall be firmly convinced that his conduct was the occasion of it . " Heywood sent his personal narrative of the mutiny to the Earl of Chatham , who was First Lord of the Admiralty and brother to the prime minister , William Pitt . This was a step Heywood subsequently regretted ; he had not consulted his lawyers , and his narrative contained statements that Heywood later rescinded on the grounds that they were " the errors of an imperfect recollection " . On 8 June Nessy was advised by her and Heywood ' s uncle , Captain Thomas Pasley , that on the basis of information from the returned " Pandora " crew " . . . your brother appears by all account to be the greatest culprit of all , Christian alone excepted . . . I have no hope of his not being condemned . " Later , however , Pasley was able to offer some comfort ; Captain Montagu of " Hector " , where Heywood was held , was Pasley ' s " particular friend " . By chance another Heywood naval relative by marriage , Captain Albemarle Bertie , was in Portsmouth Harbour with his ship , moored alongside " Hector " . Mrs Bertie , and " Edgar ' s " officers , were frequent visitors to Heywood , bringing gifts of food , clothing and other comforts . Pasley secured the services of Aaron Graham , an experienced and clever advocate , to direct Heywood ' s legal strategy . Between June and September Heywood and his sister exchanged a stream of letters and ardent poems ; Nessy ' s final letter , just before the court martial , exhorted : " May the Almighty Providence , whose tender care has hitherto preserved you , be still your bountiful Protector ! May he instil into the hearts of your judges every sentiment of justice , generosity and compassion . . . and may you at length be restored to us . " Court martial . The court martial opened on 12 September 1792 aboard in Portsmouth Harbour . Accused with Heywood were Joseph Coleman , Thomas McIntosh and Charles Norman , all of whom had been exonerated in Bligh ' s account and could confidently expect acquittal , as could Michael Byrn , the nearly blind ship ' s fiddler . The other accused were James Morrison , Thomas Burkitt , Thomas Ellison , John Millward and William Muspratt . The court martial board was presided over by Lord Hood , naval commander - in - chief at Portsmouth , and included Pasley ' s friend George Montagu and Heywood ' s relative by marriage , Albemarle Bertie . The testimonies of the boatswain Cole , the carpenter Purcell , and the sailing master John Fryer were not unfavourable towards Heywood . However , Thomas Hayward ' s declared belief that Heywood was with the mutineers was damaging , as was the evidence of John Hallett concerning Heywood ' s alleged insolence in laughing and turning away from the captive Bligh — though Hallett had previously written to Nessy Heywood professing total ignorance of the part Heywood had played in the mutiny . Heywood opened his defence on 17 September with a long prepared statement read by one of his lawyers . It began with a frank acknowledgement of his predicament : to be even accused of mutiny was to " appear at once the object of unpardonable guilt and exemplary vengeance " . His case rested on a series of arguments which , as historian Caroline Alexander points out , are not wholly consistent . First , Heywood pleaded his " extreme youth and inexperience " as the cause of his failure to join Bligh and the loyalists in the open boat , insisting that " . . . I was influenced in my Conduct by the Example of my Messmates , Mr . Hallet and Mr . Hayward . . . the latter , tho ' he had been many years at Sea , yet , when Christian ordered him into the Boat he was . . . so much overcome by the harsh Command , that he actually shed tears . " Heywood then cited a different reason for staying aboard " Bounty " : Bligh ' s launch was overloaded , and its destruction would be assured " by the least addition to their Number " . Finally , Heywood maintained he had intended to join Bligh but had been stopped : " . . . on hearing it suggested that I should be deem ' d Guilty if I staid in the Ship , I went down directly , and in passing Mr . Cole told him in a low tone of voice that I would fetch a few necessaries in a Bag and follow him into the Boat , which at that time I meant to do but was afterwards prevented . " Under further questioning , Cole confirmed his belief that Heywood had been detained against his will . William Peckover , " Bounty ' s " gunnery officer , affirmed that if he had stayed aboard the ship in the hope of retaking her , he would have looked to Heywood for assistance . Witnesses from the " Pandora " attested that Heywood had surrendered himself voluntarily , and that he had been fully cooperative in providing information . On the issue of his alleged laughing at Bligh ' s predicament , Heywood managed to cast doubts on Hallett ' s testimony , asking how Hallett had managed " to particularise the muscles of a man ' s countenance " at some distance and during the hurly - burly of a mutiny . Heywood concluded his defence with what Alexander terms an " audacious " assertion that had Bligh been present in court he would have " exculpated me from the least disrespect " . Verdict and sentences . On 18 September Lord Hood announced the court ' s verdicts . As expected , Coleman , McIntosh , Norman and Byrn were acquitted . Heywood and the other five were found guilty of the charge of mutiny , and were ordered to suffer death by hanging . Lord Hood added that " in consideration of various circumstances , the court did humbly and most earnestly recommend the said Peter Heywood and James Morrison to His Majesty ' s Royal Mercy . " Heywood ' s family were quickly reassured by the lawyer Aaron Graham that the young man ' s life was safe and that he would soon be free . As the weeks passed , Heywood calmly occupied himself by resuming his studies of the Tahitian language . Meanwhile the family — Nessy in particular — busied itself on his behalf , and another plea was made to the Earl of Chatham , in heart - rending terms . Shortly afterwards came the first indication that a royal pardon was in the offing , and on 26 October , on " Hector ' s " quarterdeck , this was formally read to Heywood and Morrison by Captain Montagu . Heywood responded with a short statement that ended : " I receive with gratitude my Sovereign ' s mercy , for which my future life will be faithfully devoted to his service . " According to a Dutch newspaper which reported the case , his contrition was accompanied by a " flood of tears " . William Muspratt , the only other of the accused to employ legal counsel , was reprieved on a legal technicality and pardoned in February 1793 . James Morrison had conducted his own defence . Three days later , aboard , Millward , Burkitt and Ellison were hanged from the yardarms . Dening calls them " a humble remnant on which to wreak vengeance " . There was some unease expressed in the press , a suspicion that " money had bought the lives of some , and others fell sacrifice to their poverty . " A report that Heywood was heir to a large fortune was unfounded ; nevertheless , Dening asserts that " in the end it was class or relations or patronage that made the difference . " Some accounts claim that the condemned trio continued to protest their innocence until the last moment , while others speak of their " manly firmness that . . . was the admiration of all " . Aftermath . On the specific recommendation of Lord Hood , who had offered the young man his personal patronage , Heywood resumed his naval career as a midshipman aboard his uncle Thomas Pasley ' s ship . In September 1793 he was summoned by Lord Howe , commander of the Channel Fleet , to serve on , the fleet ' s flagship . Hough observes that a pardon , followed by promotion , for one of Bligh ' s chief targets was " a public rebuke to the absent captain , and everyone recognised it as such " . Although Bligh had departed on his second breadfruit expedition in August 1791 as a national hero , the court martial had revealed damaging evidence of his erratic and overbearing behaviour . The families of Heywood and Christian , noting the leniency that had acquitted four and pardoned three of the ten accused , began their own campaigns for vindication , and for revenge on Bligh . When Bligh returned in August 1793 he found that opinion had turned sharply against him . Lord Chatham , at the Admiralty , refused to receive his report or even see him — although Nathaniel Portlock , Bligh ' s lieutenant , was given a meeting . Bligh was then left unemployed , on half - pay , for 19 months before his next assignment . Shortly after his release , Heywood had written to Edward Christian , Fletcher ' s older brother , that he would " prove that your brother was not that vile wretch , void of all gratitude . . . but , on the contrary , a most worthy character . . . beloved by all ( except one , whose ill report is his greatest praise ) " . This statement , published immediately after Heywood ' s pardon in a local Whitehaven newspaper as an open letter to Edward Christian , contradicted the respect Heywood had accorded Bligh in the courtroom , and , in turn , it led to the publication in late 1794 of Edward Christian ' s " Appendix " to the court martial proceedings . Presented as an account of the " real causes and circumstances of that Unhappy Transaction " , the " Appendix " was said by the press to " palliate the behaviour of Christian and the Mutineers , and to criminate Captain Bligh " . In the controversy that followed , Bligh ' s rebuttals could not silence doubts as to his own conduct , and his position was further undermined when William Peckover , a Bligh loyalist , confirmed that the allegations in the " Appendix " were substantially accurate . Subsequent career . Early stages . Heywood served on " Queen Charlotte " until March 1795 , and was aboard her when the French fleet was defeated at Ushant on 1 June 1794 , the occasion known as the " Glorious First of June " . In August 1794 he was promoted acting lieutenant . In March 1795 , doubts about his eligibility as a convicted mutineer for further promotion were set aside and his advancement to full lieutenant ' s rank was approved , despite his lacking the stated minimum of six years ' service at sea . Among those who supported the promotion was Captain Hugh Cloberry Christian , a relative of Fletcher Christian . In January 1796 Heywood was appointed third lieutenant to and sailed with her to the East Indies . He was to remain in this station for nine years . By the end of 1796 he was " Fox ' s " first lieutenant , and remained so until mid - 1798 when he transferred to . On 17 May 1799 Heywood was given his first command , , a brig - of - war . In August 1800 Heywood was appointed commander of a bomb ship , the " Vulcan " , in which he visited Coupang , where he had been held prisoner eight years earlier . It was at this time that he began the hydrographic work that would mark the remainder of his naval career . Hydrographer . In 1803 , after a succession of commands , Heywood was promoted to post - captain . In command of , Heywood conducted a series of surveys of the eastern coasts of Ceylon and India , areas that had not been studied previously , and produced what Alexander describes as " beautifully drafted charts " . In later years he was to produce similar charts for the north coast of Morocco , the River Plate area of South America , parts of the coasts of Sumatra and north - west Australia , and other channels and coastlines . His skill in this area may well have developed from Bligh ' s tutelege in the earlier stages of the " Bounty " voyage . Bligh , an accomplished draughtsman , had written of Christian and Heywood : " These two had been objects of my particular regard and attention , and I had taken great pains to instruct them . " James Horsburgh , who was hydrographer to the East India Company , wrote that Heywood ' s work had " essentially contributed to making my Sailing Directory for the Indian navigation much more perfect than it would otherwise have been . " The extent of Heywood ' s professional reputation was demonstrated when the position of Admiralty Hydrographer was offered to him in 1818 , after he had retired from the sea . He declined , and the appointment went to Francis Beaufort on Heywood ' s recommendation . Later service . After a brief period ashore in 1805 – 06 Heywood was appointed flag captain to Rear - Admiral Sir George Murray , aboard . In March 1802 Murray ' s squadron was employed in the transportation of troops from the Cape of Good Hope to South America , in support of a failed British attempt to capture Buenos Aires from the Spanish , who were allied to the French during the Napoleonic wars . " Polyphemus " remained in the River Plate area , carrying out surveying and merchant vessel protection duties . 1808 saw Heywood back in England , in command of , which in the following year was part of a squadron that attacked and destroyed three French frigates in the Bay of Biscay , an action for which he received the Admiralty ' s thanks . After taking command of HMS " Nereus " in May 1809 , Heywood served briefly in the Mediterranean under Admiral Lord Collingwood ; after Collingwood ' s death in March 1810 Heywood brought his commander ' s body back to England . He then took " Nereus " to South America where he remained for three years , earning the gratitude of the British merchants in that region for his work in protecting trade routes . Heywood ' s last command was , in which he acted as escort to King Louis XVIII on the latter ' s return to France in May 1814 . He remained with " Montagu " for the rest of his naval service . Alexander suggests that throughout his later career Heywood suffered a sense of guilt over his pardon , knowing that he had " perjured himself " in saying that he was kept below and therefore prevented from joining Bligh . She believes that Pasley and Graham may have bribed William Cole to testify that Heywood had been held against his will , echoing Thomas Bond , Bligh ' s nephew , who had asserted in 1792 that " Heywood ' s friends have bribed through thick and thin to save him " . John Adams , the last survivor of Christian ' s " Bounty " party that sailed to Pitcairn Island , was discovered in 1808 . In 1825 , interviewed by Captain Edward Belcher , Adams maintained that Heywood was on the gangway , not below , and " might have gone [ in the open boat ] if he pleased . " Retirement and death . On 16 July 1816 " Montagu " was paid off in Chatham and Heywood finally retired from the sea . Two weeks later he married Frances Joliffe , a widow whom he had met ten years earlier , and settled with her at Highgate , near London . The couple had no children but , apart from his daughter in Tahiti , there is a suggestion in a will which he signed in 1810 that Heywood had also fathered a British child — the will makes provision for one Mary Gray , " an infant under my care and protection " . In May 1818 Heywood declined command of the Canadian Lakes with the rank of commodore . As he had become content with shore life , he said he would only accept another appointment in the event of war . In retirement Heywood published his dictionary of the Tahitian language , wrote papers relating to his profession , and corresponded widely . He enjoyed a circle of acquaintances which included the writer Charles Lamb , and was a particular friend of the hydrographer Francis Beaufort . He destroyed much of his writing shortly before his death , but a document from 1829 survives , in which he expresses his views on the unfitness for self - government of Greeks , Turks , Spaniards and Portuguese , the iniquities of the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches , and the doubtful benefits of Catholic emancipation in Ireland . Of strong religious convictions , Heywood was increasingly interested in spiritual matters during the last years of his life . His health began to fail in 1828 , and he died after suffering a stroke , aged 58 , in February 1831 . He was interred in the vault of Highgate School chapel , where a memorial plaque was dedicated on 8 December 2008 . Nessy Heywood had died on 25 August 1793 , less than a year after Heywood ' s pardon . Heywood ' s adversaries John Hallett and Thomas Hayward both died at sea within three years of the court martial . William Bligh served in the battles of Camperdown and Copenhagen before , in 1806 , he was appointed Governor of New South Wales . He returned to London in 1810 having suffered a further mutiny by corrupt local army officers who had taken exception to Bligh ' s attempts to reform local practices that were highly lucrative for them , but detrimental to the colonial treasury . On his retirement he was promoted to rear admiral ; he died in 1817 . Fletcher Christian , who had taken the " Bounty " to Pitcairn Island and founded a colony there with a group of hard core mutineers and conscripted Tahitians , was killed in September 1793 during a feud . His last recorded words , supposedly , were " Oh , dear ! "