Mutiny on the HMS Bounty - Apr 28, 1789 - HISTORY.com Mutiny on the HMS Bounty Share this: Mutiny on the HMS Bounty Author Mutiny on the HMS Bounty URL Publisher A+E Networks Three weeks into a journey from Tahiti to the West Indies, the HMS Bounty is seized in a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, the master’s mate. Captain William Bligh and 18 of his loyal supporters were set adrift in a small, open boat, and the Bounty set course for Tubuai south of Tahiti. In December 1787, the Bounty left England for Tahiti in the South Pacific, where it was to collect a cargo of breadfruit saplings to transport to the West Indies. There, the breadfruit would serve as food for slaves. After a 10-month journey, the Bounty arrived in Tahiti in October 1788 and remained there for more than five months. On Tahiti, the crew enjoyed an idyllic life, reveling in the comfortable climate, lush surroundings, and the famous hospitality of the Tahitians. Fletcher Christian fell in love with a Tahitian woman named Mauatua.

On April 4, 1789, the Bounty departed Tahiti with its store of breadfruit saplings. On April 28, near the island of Tonga, Christian and 25 petty officers and seamen seized the ship. Bligh, who eventually would fall prey to a total of three mutinies in his career, was an oppressive commander and insulted those under him. By setting him adrift in an overcrowded 23-foot-long boat in the middle of the Pacific, Christian and his conspirators had apparently handed him a death sentence. By remarkable seamanship, however, Bligh and his men reached Timor in the East Indies on June 14, 1789, after a voyage of about 3,600 miles. Bligh returned to England and soon sailed again to Tahiti, from where he successfully transported breadfruit trees to the West Indies. Meanwhile, Christian and his men attempted to establish themselves on the island of Tubuai. Unsuccessful in their colonizing effort, the Bounty sailed north to Tahiti, and 16 crewmen decided to stay there, despite the risk of capture by British authorities.

Christian and eight others, together with six Tahitian men, a dozen Tahitian women, and a child, decided to search the South Pacific for a safe haven. In January 1790, the Bounty settled on Pitcairn Island, an isolated and uninhabited volcanic island more than 1,000 miles east of Tahiti. The mutineers who remained on Tahiti were captured and taken back to England where three were hanged. A British ship searched for Christian and the others but did not find them. In 1808, an American whaling vessel was drawn to Pitcairn by smoke from a cooking fire. The Americans discovered a community of children and women led by John Adams, the sole survivor of the original nine mutineers. According to Adams, after settling on Pitcairn the colonists had stripped and burned the Bounty, and internal strife and sickness had led to the death of Fletcher and all the men but him. In 1825, a British ship arrived and formally granted Adams amnesty, and he served as patriarch of the Pitcairn community until his death in 1829.

In 1831, the Pitcairn islanders were resettled on Tahiti, but unsatisfied with life there they soon returned to their native island. In 1838, the Pitcairn Islands, which includes three nearby uninhabited islands, was incorporated into the British Empire. By 1855, Pitcairn’s population had grown to nearly 200, and the two-square-mile island could not sustain its residents. In 1856, the islanders were removed to Norfolk Island, a former penal colony nearly 4,000 miles to the west. However, less than two years later, 17 of the islanders returned to Pitcairn, followed by more families in 1864. Today, around 40 people live on Pitcairn Island, and all but a handful are descendants of the Bounty mutineers. About a thousand residents of Norfolk Island (half its population) trace their lineage from Fletcher Christian and the eight other Englishmen.

Related Videos A Bounty of Interpretations: History’s Most Famous Mutiny by Jake Hinkson Jake Hinkson This much we know: in the early hours of April 28, 1789, in the middle of the south seas a group of sailors aboard the British cutter HMS Bounty seized control of their ship. They loaded the ship’s captain—a career naval man named Lt. William Bligh—and 17 of his loyalists onto a 23-foot launch (essentially a lifeboat). The mutineers, led by the Bounty’s Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian then turned around and sailed back to Tahiti, from whose islands they had departed just a few days earlier. Bligh and his men, for all intents and purposes having been condemned to death on the open water, made an astonishing 3,618-mile journey to the East Indies. Meanwhile, after fleeing Tahiti with some local women and supplies, Christian and a handful of his mutineers disappeared. Somehow, of all the many mutinies in naval history, the story of Bligh, Christian, and the HMS Bounty took on the quality of a myth. In some respects, this is baffling.

After all, the mission of the Bounty and its crew was hardly the stuff from which legends spring. Bligh’s job was to go down to Tahiti to pick breadfruit plants that would then be used as an inexpensive food source on West Indian sugar plantations. In other words, the Bounty was transporting cheap groceries in support of the slave trade. In addition to the grimy nature of the mission, the ship and her men were all less than impressive. The Bounty itself was so small that the captain had to give up his quarters to make room for the breadfruit. Bligh seemed to be stuck in a go-nowhere job, with his middle age fast approaching, and his professional options dwindling. (“Captain Bligh” wasn’t even technically a captain; he was a lieutenant.) His crew was a ragtag group. Some like Fletcher Christian came from good families that had fallen on hard times. Many others were scared-up, toothless seadogs. So why did this insignificant incident became the mutiny of all mutinies?

The main reason has to do with the starkness of its central story: a group of Romantic Era sailors depart from England in a cramped ship, discover the sensual freedoms of the Tahitian island, and then rebel against the strict discipline of the navy. They sail away, disappearing into the fog of time. Part of the appeal is to be found in the central characters. William Bligh—the name itself sounds like a disgusted ‘blah’—the man of rules and regulations. When he and his starving loyalists completed their brutal open-boat voyage to Timor, he briefly became a national hero. (One fact beyond dispute in this whole affair is that Bligh’s successful navigation of his battered little lifeboat is one of the greatest feats in naval history.) Over time, however, he became the villain of the story—the tyrant with a lash in his hand and abuse on his tongue. As the writer Caroline Alexander convincingly argues in her brilliant 2008 book The Bounty, this view of Bligh—repeated in histories, novels, plays, and films—is little more than slander. While he was as strict a disciplinarian as most ship captains, Bligh was hardly a tyrant.

One point Alexander establishes very well is that fully half of the Bounty’s crew elected to climb into the little lifeboat with their captain—so many, in fact, that there wasn’t enough room for every man who wanted to stay with Bligh. And then there is the great sphinx of the Bounty saga, Fletcher Christian. (The name itself has a swashbuckling ring to it.) A schoolmate of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, he came from a once-great family that had run out of money, forcing Christian into a late-blooming career as a navy man. In time, his story would evolve into a romantic tale—the story of an Englishman who met and fell in love with Tahitian beauty named Maimiti and abandoned his life, family, and nation for her. In truth, almost nothing is known about their relationship, and Christian’s exact reasons for leading a rebellion against Bligh remain vague. Most sources seem to agree that the idea to mutiny actually started with the Midshipman George Stewart, who, like Christian, left behind a wife on Tahiti.

No matter, over the years, Christian—initially labeled as a scoundrel and rouge—became a kind of free-spirited hero, a maverick unwilling to submit to tyranny. The third act of the Bounty saga is equally fascinating. Years after the Bounty disappeared, an American naval vessel happened upon an island inhabited by one white man, a few Tahitian women, and a handful of children. The man gave his name as John Adams, the last surviving mutineer of the Bounty. After leaving Tahiti, Adams explained, the mutineers had struck out looking for an island mentioned in one of Bligh’s books, an island the exact coordinates of which were unknown. By sheer luck, or happy fate, they stumbled across the lush, isolated Pitcairn’s Island. When divisions arose between the mutineers and the Tahitian men they’d brought with them (according to Adams, the Englishmen regarded Tahitian women as wives, but Tahitian men as little more than slaves), the resulting battles killed every grown man save for Adams. Among the children was Thursday October Christian, the son of Fletcher Christian and Maimiti, and the first child born on Pitcairn.

The island today is still inhabited by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian wives. Over the years, the mutiny has found its way into many books and films. Here’s a quick guide to a few: 1. The Bounty Trilogy (Mutiny On The Bounty, 1932; Men Against The Sea, 1933; Pitcarin’s Island, 1934) by Charles Nordoff and James Norman Hall—a rollicking adventure series full of action and romance, but marked by a wild caricature of the “villainous Bligh” and compromised by casual racism and anti-Semitism. 2. Mutiny On The Bounty (1935)—Adapted from Nordoff and Hall, this classic adventure stars Charles Laughton as Bligh and Clark Gable as Christian. Highly entertaining, a perfect example of the simplified revolt-against-tyranny version of the myth. 3. Mutiny On The Bounty (1962)—A brooding, downbeat version of the saga starring grim Trevor Howard as Bligh and a somehow even grimmer Marlon Brando as Christian.

Not much more historically accurate than the ’35 version and not as much fun. 4. The Bounty (1984)—By far the most historically accurate adaptation of the story, this Roger Donaldson film is also the best. Starring Anthony Hopkins as Bligh and Mel Gibson as Christian, the movie abandons the tyrant/rebel dichotomy of earlier versions in favor of a more nuanced, and more interesting view of the conflict. Supporting Hopkins and Gibson (both of whom are excellent) is a Who’s Who of acting talent: Daniel Day-Lewis, Laurence Olivier, Liam Neeson, and Edward Fox. 5. The Bounty: The True Story Of The Mutiny On The Bounty (2008) Caroline Alexander—There are several good books on the Bounty saga, but this is the first one to get. Deeply researched, cogently argued, and beautifully written, it’s the definitive account of the events leading up to, and out of, that fateful April morning. Mutiny on the Bounty Mutiny on the Bounty By Ben Johnson | Comments Back in the 1930s a blockbuster movie was made which reappears almost every year on the Christmas TV schedule.

It tells the tale, which is in fact a true story, about a famous mutiny that took place in 1789 on an English ship. The exact cause of the mutiny is unclear, but the captain’s harsh and brutal treatment of his men has been offered as a possible explanation; that said, conditions on-board ships in those days were very hard. The ship was HMS Bounty and the captain, one William Bligh. William Bligh was born in Plymouth on September 9th 1754, and joined the Navy as young man aged 15. He had a ‘colourful’ career, and was personally selected by Captain James Cook to be the sailing master of the Resolution on his second voyage around the world between 1772-74. He saw service in many naval battles, in 1781 and 1782, and in late 1787 he was chosen by Sir Joseph Banks to command HMS Bounty. To the men of the Bounty Bligh was a harsh and cruel taskmaster, and chief mate Fletcher Christian became, as did other members of the crew, increasingly mutinous over the course of their journey.

The Bounty had orders to collect breadfruit trees from Tahiti, and take them to the West Indies as a food source for the African slaves there. Tahiti was a beautiful place and when the time came to leave the island, the crew were understandably reluctant to say their goodbyes. For it appears that the crew had been beguiled by the charms of the Tahitian women, (apparently Tahiti is not called the Friendly Island for nothing), which made the harsh conditions of the Bounty doubly difficult to stomach. In April 1789, a mutiny involving many of the sailors took place; their ringleader was Fletcher Christian. The result of this was that Captain Bligh and eighteen of his loyal crewmembers were put in an open boat, and set adrift in the Pacific by the mutineers. He may have been a tyrant on-board ship but Captain Bligh was a brilliant seaman. After a journey of almost 4,000 miles in an open boat, Bligh brought his men safely to shore in Timor in the East Indies, quite a staggering feat of navigation considering that they had been set adrift without charts.

It is not known what happened to the ship Bounty after the mutineers reached Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific in 1790. It is known however, that a little later some of the mutineers returned to Tahiti and were captured and punished for their crime. The ones that stayed on Pitcairn Island formed a small colony and remained free under the leadership of John Adams. It is not clear what happened to Fletcher Christian. It is thought that he, along with three of the other mutineers, may have been killed by the Tahitians. Meanwhile Captain Bligh prospered, and in 1805 he was appointed Governor of New South Wales in Australia. However his strict discipline again proved difficult for people to accept, and his policy of preventing the importation of liquor provoked the ‘Rum Rebellion’: yet another mutiny then! Bligh was arrested, this time by mutinous soldiers, and kept in custody until February 1809 before being sent back to England in May 1810. Not that this ended his illustrious career; he was made an Admiral in 1814. He died on December 7th 1817 at his London home.

Ship replica used in ‘Mutiny on the Bounty,’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ opens to visitors in Belfast | BDN Maine | Bangor Daily News Ship replica used in ‘Mutiny on the Bounty,’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ opens to visitors in Belfast Gabor Degre | BDN Robin Wallbridge is the captain of the HMS Bounty, the replica ship that was built for the 1962 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" with Marlon Brando. This Hollywood-verison-ship is 180 feet long, about twice the size of the original ship, and has been featured in several movies. It will be in Belfast and open to the public from Friday, Aug. 10 through Sunday, Aug. 12. Buy Photo Robert F. Bukaty | AP By Abigail Curtis , BDN Staff Aug. 08, 2012, at 7:43 p.m. BELFAST, Maine — Subtlety is not a word that can be used to describe the HMS Bounty. As soon as the replica of the infamous square-rigged tall ship tied up at the Belfast city dock Wednesday, a growing crowd of onlookers started to arrive.

“I was walking across the bridge and I saw it,” Francis Marsano of Belfast said Wednesday afternoon after changing his course to get as close as possible to the Bounty. “It’s an incredible vessel. Just spectacular to see from a distance.” The original Bounty became famous when Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian instigated a 1789 mutiny against Captain William Bligh in the South Pacific. The original Bounty was burned off Pitcairn Island. The replica was built from original ship’s drawings to be used in the 1962 MGM film “Mutiny on the Bounty” and will be docked in the harbor until Monday. Visitors are very welcome, said Captain Robin Wallbridge, who had just steered the Bounty from Lunenberg, N.S. He said that wherever the world-traveling Bounty goes, lots of people want to come aboard. There are three main reasons, Wallbridge said. The first is because Marlon Brando starred in the 1962 movie and he still has a lot of fans.

The second reason is because the Bounty is something of a Hollywood maritime star, and has played roles in “Treasure Island” with Charlton Heston, “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” “It’s a movie ship,” the captain said. “But the real reason people want to come by and see it is because it looks like a pirate ship.” The wooden vessel is 180 feet long, has three masts and 18 sails. It primarily travels by sail, but uses a motor on occasion, he said. “We’d never be able to get it into places like this without one,” he said. The Bounty was overhauled in 2006 in Boothbay Harbor, and since then has been a regular at tall ship events in England, Europe, and up and down both coasts of the U.S. as well as the Galapagos Islands, according to the website for the HMS Bounty Organization. That group works to keep the ship sailing and also uses it to teach the nearly lost arts of square rigged sailing and seamanship.

The replica has been to ports in Maine from Portland to Eastport, but this is its first visit to Belfast. “I like Belfast,” Wallbridge said. “The weather’s beautiful.” He confided that Johnny Depp, star of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, doesn’t know how to sail a boat. “I’m afraid it will disillusion a lot of readers,” he said. “But he probably was the greatest actor we worked with. He was very polite and very humble.” And so far, Wallbridge’s 20-person crew hasn’t given the captain any trouble, making a reprise of the fate of the original seem unlikely. “I have a really, really good crew,” he said. “The crew is here because they want to be here.” Admission to the Bounty is $10 for adults and $5 for children. The ship will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10 through Sunday, Aug. 12. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, children’s admission to the ship includes a treasure map that will lead to gold tokens hidden throughout downtown Belfast.

The first 150 kids to finish the hunt will receive a goodie bag and the chance to win prizes, with the grand prize valued at more than $200. Additionally, the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a cocktail social on the Bounty from 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, that will feature live blues music and local food and drinks. Mutiny on the Bounty, 225 Years Ago - History in the Headlines Mutiny on the Bounty, 225 Years Ago April 28, 2014 By Christopher Klein Share this: Mutiny on the Bounty, 225 Years Ago Author Mutiny on the Bounty, 225 Years Ago URL Google When William Bligh drifted off to sleep on April 27, 1789, the commander of HMS Bounty thought his voyage had thus far “advanced in a course of uninterrupted prosperity, and had been attended with many circumstances equally pleasing and satisfactory.” Within hours, however, that would all change as plans were already afoot for history’s most famous mutiny.

As its commander slept, HMS Bounty sliced through the South Pacific laden with cargo vital to the economic interests of the British Empire—not gold or silver, but hundreds of potted breadfruit saplings. These young trees native to Tahiti held the promise of prosperity for plantation owners in the British West Indies who believed the fruit they would yield, which had the texture and smell of freshly baked bread when cooked, would be a cheap, highly nutritious “energy food” to fuel the slaves toiling in their fields. English botanist and naturalist Joseph Banks commissioned Bligh for the Royal Navy’s unusual mission, which departed England in December 1787 bound for Tahiti. Although only 33 years old, Bligh was a salty veteran with a sharp tongue who had sailed the world with Captain James Cook. Among his 45 men was the friendly, familiar face of master’s mate Fletcher Christian with whom he had sailed twice before. After an arduous 10-month journey, HMS Bounty arrived in Tahiti, an island paradise of beautiful scenery and beautiful women.

Bligh described it as “the finest island in the world,” but the commander started to stew as he unexpectedly spent week after week in Tahiti waiting for the newly potted saplings to take root. As his men relaxed, Bligh grew tense at the breakdown of his crew’s discipline in a land “where the allurements of dissipation are beyond anything that can be conceived.” Already prone to outbursts of temper, Bligh increasingly lashed out at his men—in particular Christian, who had adopted the islanders’ dress and fallen in love with a Tahitian woman. Although the commander used flogging less often than most captains, he increasingly employed physical punishment on his crew. Bounty finally departed Tahiti with its bounty of breadfruit saplings on April 4, 1789. With Bounty’s stern converted into a floating greenhouse of potted plants, the small ship was more cramped than ever, and the dark, smelly surroundings must have seemed ever harsher after the hedonistic stay in Tahiti. Although Bligh had promoted Christian to acting lieutenant during the voyage, the men’s relationship continued to deteriorate at sea. Fed up with the commander’s imperiousness and insults, Christian could take no more of it.

Before dawn broke on April 28, whispers floated in the salty air and light footsteps creaked the floors. Armed with a cutlass, Christian crept into Bligh’s darkened cabin along with three others who pointed muskets and bayonets at the ship’s commander. The mutineers tied Bligh’s hands tightly behind his back and ordered him and 17 of his loyal crew into one of the small open boats on the deck and launched the tiny 23-foot vessel into the water. William Bligh As the sun rose, Bligh scanned the vast blue nothingness that surrounded him. Finally spotting steam rising over the horizon, the outcasts landed on an island to harvest supplies. After receiving a hostile reception from the islanders that claimed the life of one of his crew, Bligh decided their best chance for survival was to sail 3,600 miles to the closest European settlement in Timor. The wet, tired crew parceled out their meager supplies—including 28 gallons of water, 150 pounds of bread and 6 quarts of rum—and they were even forced to eat the undigested fish from the stomachs of birds they caught by hand.

The harrowing journey took nearly seven weeks, but Bligh, who lacked charts or a compass, successfully commanded the small open boat to safety in Timor. “Our bodies were nothing but skin and bones, our limbs were full of sores, and we were clothed in rags,” he reported. Meanwhile, after the mutiny, Christian had directed Bounty back to Tahiti. Despite the risk of capture by the British, 16 of Bounty’s crew (nine mutineers and seven Bligh loyalists who couldn’t fit in the launch) chose to remain there. Christian, knowing he would spend the rest of his life a fugitive and never return to England, sought a safer haven and sailed on along with 19 native islanders. After four months at sea, they landed on a two-square-mile rocky outpost 1,000 miles east of Tahiti—Pitcairn Island. The outlaws fashioned tents out of the ship’s sail and then stripped and burned Bounty in one of the bays of their island hideout. Christian’s new home proved to be anything but an island paradise. Sandy beaches were nonexistent. Fierce winds and storms raked the island.

The food intended for West Indian slaves, breadfruit, now became a staple for the marooned sailors. The colony was beset by sickness and violent infighting that took the lives of nearly every mutineer, including Christian, at an early age. Bligh returned to England in March 1790 with his sensational story. The Royal Navy seized the surviving mutineers in Tahiti and locked them in chains inside a small, dark cell on HMS Pandora to sail back to England. Off the Australian coast, however, Pandora struck the Great Barrier Reef and sank. Four prisoners died in their chains. The 10 who survived stood trial. Four were acquitted, three were pardoned, and three were found guilty and hanged for their crimes. British authorities searched in vain for Christian and the other outlaws. The secret colony on Pitcairn Island went undetected until an American whaling ship arrived in 1808 to investigate smoke from a cooking fire rising about the island’s treetops and found John Adams, the last survivor of the nine mutineers, and a community of women and more than 20 children fathered by the outlaws, including Christian’s 18-year-old son.

The island founded by fugitives from the Royal Navy was incorporated into the British Empire in 1838, and today, fewer than 50 people, nearly all descendants of the mutineers, live on Pitcairn Island. Bligh faced a court-martial in England over Bounty’s loss, but he was acquitted in October 1790. Banks again sent him to Tahiti on a second mission to retrieve breadfruit saplings, and this time Bligh successfully delivered the goods. The mutiny appeared to have done little to change Bligh’s acerbic leadership style, however. In 1808, troops who chafed at his command deposed him as governor of the Australian state of New South Wales in an armed takeover known as the “Rum Rebellion.” Tags Mutiny! The HMS Bounty in Popular Culture Mutiny! The HMS Bounty in Popular Culture Harriet Hu Pitcairn Island is home to the descendants of the British and Tahitian people, who were involved in the famous mutiny that occurred here many years ago aboard The Bounty, a Royal Navy merchant vessel.

Inevitably, this story defines a huge part of Pitcairn ancestry, and even though the Islands are part of one of the least populated jurisdictions in the world, this event has been reproduced various times across all sections of the media. Mutiny of the Bounty | © National Maritime Museum/WikiCommons A Brief History The story began with The Bounty setting sail from England to Tahiti in its mission to transport breadfruit to Jamaica , where the trees were to be introduced as a reliable and nutritious food source. The journey itself was difficult for all involved, as Captain William Bligh eradicated months of the ship’s planned route; a decision that ended in a navigational nightmare. Severe weather conditions were an additional hindrance and because of Bligh’s focus on getting to Tahiti while the breadfruit was still in planting condition, he pushed his crew harder and violated many of their basic rights. In an attempt to justify his actions to Fletcher Christian, the ship’s second-in-command, Bligh explained that instilling fear was the only way of motivating the crew.

Eventually Christian’s tolerance diminished and he lead a mutiny against Bligh, taking over The Bounty and sending Bligh and the portion of the crew that was still loyal to him away on a small boat. Following this, Christian and the rest of the crew set sail and settled on Pitcairn Island . Bligh and the rest of his men returned to England and reported the mutiny. The HMS Bounty submerged during Hurricane Sandy | © United States Coast Guard Visual Information Gallery/WikiCommons Reproductions in Cinema One of the most famous reproductions of the story is the film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), which retells the historic sequential events that took place aboard the ship. The film stars Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as William Bligh, both of whom have been described as giving “fascinating performances.” Mutiny on the Bounty is also coined as a tale that is “true, turbulent and tremendous”, pointing to the historically dubious retellings of the story.

Directed by Lewis Milestone, a Russian-born American motion picture director, who also directed films such as Two Arabian Knights (1927), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Of Mice and Men (1940) and Ocean’s 11 (1960). Mutiny on the Bounty is deemed a blockbuster, especially in comparison to the original 1935 film . A much loved replica of the ship was created for the 1962 film and successfully sailed the globe until it was sadly lost, along with two crew members, during the violent Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The HMS Bounty in Popular Culture Other references to this event relating to the identity of the Pitcairn Islands can be found, the most unexpected coming from the more contemporary context of pop culture. The British rock band The Mekons , for example, have a song about the mutineers, and series such as Star Trek and The Simpsons have named ships or even created episodes based around the event. More recent literary accounts have provided different views, like John Boyne’s 2008 novel Mutiny on the Bounty which was written from the perspective of Bligh’s personal valet.

Even the manga series, Highschool of the Dead, likens characters to mutineers of The Bounty. Finally, comic book writer Andrew Bonia hosts a blog called ‘ On the Bounty ’, where he draws different comic scenes of the mutiny. The Bounty is now also celebrated on postage stamps around the world and every January Pitcairn Island is host to Bounty Day, in remembrance of the event. The Bounty, Pitcairn Island, and Fletcher Christian's Descendants The Bounty, Pitcairn Island, and Fletcher Christian's Descendants April 28 marks the anniversary of the world's most famous mutiny by Borgna Brunner Phrases in the Pitcairnese Dialect I starten. – I'm going. Bou yo gwen? – Where are you going? I gwen down Farder's morla. – I'm going down to Father's place tomorrow. Bou yo bin? – Where have you been? I gwen out yenna fer porpay. – I'm going out yonder for red guavas. Foot yawly come yah? – Why did you come here? Up a side, Tom'sa roll. – Up at that place, Tom fell down.

Source: Ray and Eileen Young, New Zealand residents descended from Midshipmen Edward Young of the Bounty. Courtesy of the Pitcairn Island Web site. It is not surprising that the most famous of all mutinies , that of the British HMS Bounty , has become ideal fodder for popular history and legend. The mutiny has generated five films (who can think of Fletcher Christian without picturing Marlon Brando ?) as well as countless books (including a historical novel by Mark Twain , The Great Revolution in Pitcairn). Set in the paradisiacal islands of the South Seas, the mutiny involved a host of colorful characters, including the tyrannical Captain Bligh , the aristocratic Fletcher Christian (a distant relation of William Wordsworth's ), numerous uninhibited Tahitian women, and a pack of sailors made up of cockney orphans and ruffian adverturers. Anglo-Tahitian Culture Preserved What has also helped to perpetuate the romantic fascination with the mutiny is the existence of a small community on Pitcairn Island directly descended from the mutineers and their Tahitian wives.

Living on a 1.75 square mile volcanic speck in the South Pacific that is surely one of the most isolated places on Earth, the contemporary Pitcairn Islanders still bear the surnames of the eighteenth century mutineers (Tom Christian, for example, is the great-great-great-grandson of Fletcher). The islanders speak a dialect that is a hybrid of Tahitian and eighteenth-century English. It is as if history had been preserved in a petri dish (another admittedly romantic notion about an already widely romanticized past). Paradise The Bounty left England on Dec. 23, 1787, and reached Tahiti in 1788. It was sent to collect a cargo of breadfruit saplings, which was then to be transported to Jamaica where the breadfruit would serve as food for slaves working on the plantations. After sailing 27,000 miles over ten months, the crew spent a sybaritic idyll on Tahiti, where they reveled in the subtropical climate, lush surroundings, and overwhelming warmth and hospitality of the Tahitians.

A scientist of the time, gladly abandoning reason for passion, claimed that the Tahitians knew "no other god but love; every day is consecrated to it, the whole island is its temple, all the women are its idols, all the men its worshippers." Many of the men found Tahitian companions, and Fletcher Christian and a Tahitian named Maimiti fell deeply in love and later married. For Christian, Maimiti had the face that launched one mutinous ship. Breadfruit Bligh On April 4, 1789, the Bounty embarked on the second leg of its journey with a cargo of a thousand breadfruit saplings aboard. A little more than three weeks later, near the island of Tonga , the crew, led by first mate Fletcher Christian, staged a mutiny against Captain William Bligh, under whom they claimed to suffer inhuman treatment. Bligh and eighteen loyal sailors were set adrift in a 23-foot open boat.

According to Captain Bligh's diary, the mutineers threw breadfruit after him as he was forced off the Bounty, and yelled, "There goes the Bounty bastard, breadfruit Bligh!" Miraculously, Bligh and his loyalists survived the seven-week, 3,600-mile voyage in the cramped boat, finally reaching the island of Timor . Discovering Pitcairn Pitcairn's coordinates are 25 04 S, 130 06 W. After the mutiny, Christian and his sailors returned to Tahiti, where sixteen of the twenty-five men decided to remain for good. Christian, along with eight others, their women, and a handful of Tahitian men then scoured the South Pacific for a safe haven, eventually settling on Pitcairn on January 23, 1790. An isolated volcanic island 1,350 miles southeast of Tahiti, it was named after British midshipman Robert Pitcairn, who first sighted the island on July 2, 1767.

Its location had been incorrectly charted by the explorer Carteret , who missed the mark by 200 miles, and was therefore the ideal refuge for the mutineers. Although a British ship spent three months searching for them, the mutineers eluded detection. Those who had remained on Tahiti were not so lucky. They were swiftly captured and brought to trial in England, where seven were exonerated and three were hanged. Psychoanalyzing Captain Bligh The circumstances leading to the mutiny remain unclear. History has alternately presented William Bligh as horrifically cruel or as a disciplined captain merely running a tight ship. Scenes from movies in which he keel-hauled sailors or gave their water rations to the breadfruit plants have no historical basis, but diplomacy and compassion were clearly not his strong suits. In short, the captain is believed to have been a foul-tempered, highly critical authoritarian with a superiority complex.

Bligh himself contended that the mutineers "had assured themselves of a more happy life among the Otaheitans [Tahitians] than they could possibly have in England, which, joined to some female connections, has most likely been the leading cause of the whole business." Bligh Climbs the Naval Ladder Rather than Walking the Plank Certainly the stark contrast between the pleasures of Tahiti and the bleak life aboard the Bounty played a role in igniting the mutiny, but the blame seems to rest largely on Bligh's failings as a captain. The fact that Bligh was later involved in yet another mutiny and again accused of "oppressive behavior" makes the occasional attempts to rehabilitate his reputation unconvincing. In 1805 he was appointed governor of New South Wales, Britain's colony of Australia. The colonists, well accustomed to harsh leaders and conditions, found Bligh's rule intolerable. Within three years, they mutineed; Bligh was imprisoned and sent back to England. Ironically, having two mutinies on his record did not stymie Bligh's career–he was eventually promoted to Vice Admiral.

Although he was arrogant and cruel, he was also courageous and intelligent, as well as an excellent navigator, astronomer, and cartographer–he could never have survived the seven-week, 3,600-mile post-mutiny voyage otherwise. The Ebb & Flow 2014: 48 * Pitcairn's population dropped to zero when all the inhabitants emigrated to Norfolk Island. Landing on Pitcairn Island in 1790, the mutineers and Tahitians remained invisible to the world for eighteen years. Despite the fledgling society's opportunity to invent itself from scratch, island culture more closely resembled Lord of the Flies than a Rousseauvian utopia. When an American whaler discovered the island in 1808, murder and suicide had left eight of the nine mutineers dead. Pitcairn Joins the Commonwealth Pitcairn flourished under the leadership of the last surviving mutineer, John Adams, a Cockney orphan who had joined the Bounty under the pseudonym Alexander Smith. He reverted to his real name on Pitcairn–apparently deciding it was the sort of place where he could let his hair down.

Adamstown, the capital, is named after him. Despite his former hard-drinking days and near illiteracy, Adams emphasized the importance of religion and education to the Bounty's second generation–which included Fletcher Christian's son, Thursday October Christian, the first child born on the island. In 1825, a British ship arrived and formally granted Adams amnesty, and on November 30, 1838, the Pitcairn Islands (which also include three uninhabited islands–Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno) were incorporated into the British Empire . Emigration to Norfolk Island By 1855, the population had grown to nearly 200, and the tiny island, with only 88 acres of flat land, could no longer sustain its people. As a result, Queen Victoria bequeathed them Norfolk Island , a former penal colony more than 3,700 miles to the west. On May 3, 1856, the entire population of 194 people reluctantly abandoned Pitcairn. Within 18 months, however, seventeen of the immigrants returned to Pitcairn, followed by another four families in 1864.

Contemporary Norfolk has approximately 1000 Bounty descendants–about half its population–and celebrates Bounty Day (the day the Pitcairners first arrived) on June 8. Contemporary Pitcairn Languages: English (official); Anglo-Tahitian dialect Chief Occupations: subsistence farming and fishing Agriculture: citrus fruits, sugarcane, watermelons, bananas, yams, and beans. Average Temperature: 55°-90°F Major source of revenue: postage stamps and handicrafts Currency: New Zealand dollar Area: 1.75 square miles Today about 50 people live on Pitcairn. All but a handful–a pastor, the schoolteacher, and others–are direct descendants of the mutineers. The only way to reach the island is by ship, but storms and Pitcairn's dangerous harbor have sometimes prevented landings. In recent years one of Pitcairn's thrice-annual supply ships ran aground on a reef on its way from Norfolk to Pitcairn. Mail service takes approximately three months, and for medical attention, Pitcairners must wait for a ship to transport them to New Zealand, several thousand miles to the west.

All are Seventh-Day Adventists who converted sometime after 1886, when an American missionary arrived on the island. The islanders support themselves by producing postage stamps and making handicrafts, which they sell primarily to visitors on passing ships. Their meager revenue does not cover the enormous costs incurred in keeping the remote island running–electricity, among other things, is exhorbitant and cargo costs several thousand dollars per ton to transport. Great Britain has until now subsidized the island, but it is uncertain whether it will continue to underwrite the expenses of its tiny but costly colony. World Wide Web Brings the Wide World to Pitcairn There are individuals and organizations around the world devoted to the Pitcairners, their genealogy, and the history of the mutiny (the genealogical tree extends to 7,500 known descendants throughout the world). Friends of the Pitcairn Islanders have even launched the island into cyberspace–the Pitcairn Island online portal , and Norfolk Island has its own site . It is now even possible to buy Pitcairn Island handicrafts through the Pitcairn Island Online Shop !

Pitcairn has also recently begun to sell its Internet domain name–".pn"–to those needing a unique URL. "Yahoo.com" may be out of the question, but "Yahoo.pn" just might be up for grabs. Islander Tom Christian originally sold the rights to the ".pn" domain to a British Internet company. When the cash-strapped islanders realized they were seeing no financial reward they fought for and eventually took back control of their domain name. Pitcairn Island. Courtesy of the Pitcairn Island Web Site. Paradise Lost In recent years, however, a sexual abuse scandal has cast a deep shadow over the island. Accounts of the victimization of women and young girls on Pitcairn began surfacing in 1999. Seven men–more than half the adult male population of the island–were charged with 96 counts of abuse, including rape and sexual assault. Some of the charges dated back four decades. Subject to British law, the accused faced trial in October 2004 on Pitcairn. Three judges, a number of lawyers, and legal staff members made the 3,000-mile journey to Pitcairn from New Zealand.

Eight women, all former Pitcairn Islanders, testified by video link from Auckland, New Zealand. On Oct. 29, 2004, four men were convicted of multiple sex offenses and received jail sentences of up to six years; two others were sentenced to community service. Jay Warren, the island's magistrate, was found innocent. The appeals of all four men were dismissed, and they are currently being jailed on Pitcairn and guarded by a prison staff from New Zealand.

Question: Who was captain of HMS Bounty at the time of the famous mutiny
Answer: Captain Bligh