James Morrison ( mutineer ) James Morrison ( 1760 – 1807 ) was a British seaman and mutineer who took part in the mutiny on the Bounty . Early career . James Morrison was a native of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland where his father was a merchant and land entrepreneur . He joined the navy at 18 , serving as clerk in the " Suffolk " , midshipman in the " Termagant " , and acting gunner in the " Hind " . In 1783 , he passed his master gunner ' s examination . The " Bounty " . James Morrison was the boatswain ' s mate on board the " Bounty " . The master gunner ' s position having been filled two days prior to his application , he may have taken the lesser post because of his eagerness to go along on the ' scientific expedition . ' After the mutiny , Morrison was one of 16 mutineers who returned to Tahiti after the failed attempt to build a colony on Tubuai , while Fletcher Christian and 8 others sailed the " Bounty " on to Pitcairn Island . Along with the others who then lived as ' beachcombers ' in Tahiti , he was captured here by Captain Edward Edwards of " Pandora " on 29 March 1791 , and brought back to England for court martial . While on Tahiti , he led an eight - month effort to build a schooner from local timber with which he secretly hoped to get to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies and from there return to England . He kept this to himself until the project was nearing completion , when he took a few others into his confidence . The schooner completed and christened " Resolution " , they spent many days boiling seawater to get salt sufficient to cure hundreds of pounds of pork for which they in turn had to build casks . They departed from Tahiti the day before the " Pandora " dropped anchor in Matavai Bay ; but in the end the voyage was given up as impracticable owing to their lack of navigation instruments , problems with the schooner ' s rigging and their inability to carry sufficient water . Captain Edward Edwards confiscated the schooner , ordered her re - rigged with canvas and rope from " Pandora " ' s stores and renamed her " Matavai " . " Pandora " departed with the mutineers locked up in " Pandora ' s Box " , and the schooner , manned by some of the Pandoras , was taken along as a tender . Six weeks later " Pandora " and " Matavai " became separated , and after waiting for her for several weeks at the agreed rendez - vous Anamooka , Edwards , giving her and her crew up for lost , sailed on . The " Pandora " was later wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef , and the surviving crew and prisoners , 99 men in all , had to use the ship ' s boats to continue on . When they reached Samarang , Java , the " Matavai " and her crew were there . Having arrived in Surabaya five weeks earlier , they were making their way to Batavia ( Jakarta ) under a military escort , the Dutch governor suspecting them of being pirates from the " Bounty " . Pleased to see their ' lost ' shipmates again , they had a happy reunion . The schooner was eventually sold to a local merchant in Batavia . Court - martial . At the court - martial judgment , delivered on 18 September 1792 , Morrison was sentenced to be hanged . However the court recommended mercy to the king , and , perhaps aided by a letter testifying to his good character from Captain Stirling of the " Termagant " , he and Peter Heywood were pardoned on 26 October 1792 . While incarcerated , Morrison wrote an account describing the " Bounty " ' s journey and the island and customs of Tahiti . He was very critical of Bligh ' s behavior toward his officers . He was even more critical of the officers at the time of the mutiny , writing ' The behaviour of the Officers on this Occasion was dastardly beyond description none of them ever making the least attempt to rescue the ship . . . ' Following his pardon , Morrison returned to naval service . He reached the rank of master gunner , and saw action in the Mediterranean . After serving as a gunnery instructor in Plymouth , he joined Admiral Sir Thomas Troubridge in his flagship " Blenheim " , in which he had served as a young gunner ' s mate before his Bounty experience . " Blenheim " sank on 1 February 1807 in a tropical cyclone off Madagascar with the loss of all on board . In popular culture . Morrison ' s life was the subject of a novel in Gaelic , Iain F . MacLeòid ' s " Am Bounty " ( Inverness , 2008 ) .