Thomas Ellison ( mutineer ) Thomas Ellison ( 1772 - 29 October 1792 ) was an able seaman on His Majesty ' s Armed Ship " Bounty " . After participating in the Mutiny on the Bounty on 28 April 1789 , he remained in Tahiti rather than continuing on to the Pitcairn Islands with the inner core of the mutineers , and in 1791 voluntarily turned himself in to the seamen of HMS " Pandora " to face justice in England . He was court - martial ed at Spithead in September 1792 , sentenced to death , and hanged on 29 October . Questions continue as to the degree of Ellison ' s culpability in the mutiny . Mutiny . Ellison , although he was only 15 years old when he was mustered aboard captain William Bligh ' s armed vessel " Bounty " as it sailed from Spithead for Tahiti , was already an experienced able seaman who had seen service in the merchant navy under Bligh in the West Indies . He was short ( five foot three ) and was described as dark - haired and fair - skinned . In records of the outbound voyage , Bligh praised the lad as " improving " and " is a very good Boy and will do very well . " Bligh also instructed his clerk , John Samuel , to teach " Writing and Arithmetick " to the illiterate teenager . During the " Mutiny on the Bounty " on 28 April 1789 , Ellison was standing his watch as the ship ' s wheelsman , which gave him a vantage point to view the personal confrontation between Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian at the heart of the mutiny . Ellison described himself as continuing to obey the captain ' s orders to " clap the helm down " . However , the young seaman then handed control of the helm to a mutineer , John Mills , and left the scene to ask for advice from a loyal crewman , Lawrence LeBogue . When the time came for Ellison to tell his story at his court - martial , he tried to portray this incident as an attempt to establish his loyalty ; but LeBogue - who would within minutes be set adrift with Bligh in the ship ' s boat - was less than helpful or sympathetic to the confused youth : He being wex ' d , I believe , answerd me in a Sharp surly manner , told me to go to hell and not bother him ; this Reception from my old ship mate quite Disheartened me from making an application to any One else . Ellison remained on the ship with the mutineers , but was allowed to remain on Tahiti by Fletcher Christian , and did not accompany the " Bounty " to the Pitcairn Islands . He gave himself up voluntarily when the " HMS Pandora " arrived in 1791 , and was placed in irons as a mutineer . He subsequently survived the wreck of his prison ship , and was forwarded , still as a prisoner , to England to face court - martial proceedings . Ellison faced his judges in September 1792 . In his court - martial testimony , the loyal midshipman Thomas Hayward , who had also witnessed the mutiny , recalled seeing young Ellison holding a bayonet and saying of Bligh , " Damn him , I will be sentry over him . " Hayward also said he saw Ellison in a crowd of mutineers that were jeering their powerless ex - captain and " publicly insulting " him . Able seaman Ellison was seriously outranked by Hayward , who had been promoted to lieutenant , and had no means to hire counsel for his defence or to impeach this damning testimony . As a forlorn hope , the doomed man wrote out a paper for the Judge Advocate , pleading his case and describing the mutiny from his point of view . In this paper he concluded : I hope , honorable Gentlemen , yo ' ll be so Kind as to take my Case into Consideration as I was No more than between Sixteen and Seventeen Years of age when this of [ sic ] done . Honourable Gentlemen , I leave my self at the Clemency and Mercy of this Honourable Court . This plea appears to be Ellison ' s own work , as it contains phonetic misspellings characteristic of his Cockney dialect . It did not , however , save the seaman from the gallows . He was convicted of mutiny and hanged at Spithead on 29 October 1792 . In popular culture . The 1932 novel " Mutiny on the Bounty " , by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall , portrays Ellison as a heroic character . His youthful optimism is depicted as raising the spirits of his fellow mutineer - prisoners , and his conviction and execution are characterised as a miscarriage of justice .