Preparations

The Royal Navy had purchased Bethia for the sole purpose of carrying out the mission of acquiring breadfruit plants from Tahiti, which would then be transported to the British West Indies as a cheap source of food for the region's slaves. Sugar, produced by slave labor, was by far the West Indies' biggest cash crop, and was then one of the world's most lucrative traded commodities.^[6] Sugar was cultivated under conditions so harsh and extreme that enslaved people survived an average of just seven years following arrival on West Indies plantations.^[7] English naturalist Sir Joseph Banks originated the breadfruit idea and promoted it in Britain, recommending Lieutenant William Bligh to the Admiralty as the mission's commander. Bligh, in turn, was promoted in rank via a prize offered by the Royal Society of Arts.^[8]

In June 1787, Bounty was refitted at Deptford. The great cabin was converted to house the potted breadfruit plants, and gratings were fitted to the upper deck. William Bligh was appointed commanding lieutenant of Bounty on 16 August 1787 at the age of 33, after a career that included a tour as sailing master of the sloop Resolution during the third voyage of James Cook, which lasted from 1776 to 1780. The ship's complement consisted of 46 men, with Bligh as the sole commissioned officer, two civilian gardeners to care for the breadfruit plants and the remaining crew consisting of enlisted Royal Navy personnel.^[9]

Voyage out

On 23 December 1787, Bounty sailed from Spithead for Tahiti. For a full month, the crew attempted to take the ship west, around South America's Cape Horn, but adverse weather prevented this. Bligh then proceeded east, rounding the southern tip of Africa (Cape Agulhas) and crossing the width of the Indian Ocean. During the outward voyage, Bligh demoted Sailing Master John Fryer, replacing him with Fletcher Christian . This act seriously damaged the relationship between Bligh and Fryer, and Fryer later claimed that Bligh's act was entirely personal.

Bligh is commonly portrayed as the epitome of abusive sailing captains, but this portrayal has recently come into dispute. Caroline Alexander points out in her 2003 book The Bounty that Bligh was relatively lenient compared with other British naval officers.^[10] Bligh enjoyed the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, a wealthy botanist and influential figure in Britain at the time. That, together with his experience sailing with Cook, familiarity with navigation in the area, and local customs were probably important factors in his appointment.^[11]

Bounty reached Tahiti, then called "Otaheite", on 26 October 1788, after ten months at sea. The crew spent five months there collecting and preparing 1,015 breadfruit plants to be transported to the West Indies. Bligh allowed the crew to live ashore and care for the potted breadfruit plants, and they became socialised to the customs and culture of the Tahitians. Many of the seamen and some of the "young gentlemen" had themselves tattooed in native fashion. Master's Mate and Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian married Maimiti, a Tahitian woman. Other warrant officers and seamen were also said to have formed "connections" with native women.^[12]

Mutiny and destruction of the ship

Plan of the Bounty's launch

Mutineers turning Bligh and crew adrift, by Robert Dodd, 1790

After five months in Tahiti, Bounty set sail with her breadfruit cargo on 4 April 1789. Some 1,300 mi (2,100 km) west of Tahiti, near Tonga, mutiny broke out on 28 April 1789. Despite strong words and threats heard on both sides, the ship was taken bloodlessly and apparently without struggle by any of the loyalists except Bligh himself. Of the 42 men on board aside from Bligh and Christian, 22 joined Christian in mutiny, two were passive, and 18 remained loyal to Bligh.

The mutineers ordered Bligh, two midshipmen, the surgeon's mate (Ledward), and the ship's clerk into the ship's boat. Several more men voluntarily joined Bligh rather than remain aboard. Bligh and his men sailed the open boat 30 nmi (56 km) to Tofua in search of supplies, but were forced to flee after attacks by hostile natives resulted in the death of one of the men.

Bligh then undertook an arduous journey to the Dutch settlement of Coupang, located over 3,500 nmi (6,500 km) from Tofua. He safely landed there 47 days later, having lost no men during the voyage except the one killed on Tofua.

The mutineers sailed for the island of Tubuai, where they tried to settle. After three months of bloody conflict with the natives, however, they returned to Tahiti. Sixteen of the mutineers – including the four loyalists who had been unable to accompany Bligh – remained there, taking their chances that the Royal Navy would not find them and bring them to justice.

HMS Pandora was sent out by the Admiralty in November 1790 in pursuit of Bounty, to capture the mutineers and bring them back to Britain to face a court martial. She arrived in March 1791 and captured fourteen men within two weeks; they were locked away in a makeshift wooden prison on Pandora's quarterdeck. The men called their cell "Pandora's box". They remained in their prison until 29 August 1791 when Pandora was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef with the loss of 35 lives, including four mutineers (Stewart, Sumner, Skinner, and Hildebrand).

Immediately after setting the sixteen men ashore in Tahiti in September 1789, Fletcher Christian, eight other crewmen, six Tahitian men, and 11 women, one with a baby, set sail in Bounty hoping to elude the Royal Navy. According to a journal kept by one of Christian's followers, the Tahitians were actually kidnapped when Christian set sail without warning them, the purpose of this being to acquire the women. The mutineers passed through the Fiji and Cook Islands, but feared that they would be found there.

Continuing their quest for a safe haven, on 15 January 1790 they rediscovered Pitcairn Island, which had been misplaced on the Royal Navy's charts. After the decision was made to settle on Pitcairn, livestock and other provisions were removed from Bounty. To prevent the ship's detection, and anyone's possible escape, the ship was burned on 23 January 1790 in what is now called Bounty Bay.

Bounty Bay, where Bounty was grounded and set alight

The mutineers remained undetected on Pitcairn until February 1808, when sole remaining mutineer John Adams and the surviving Tahitian women and their children were discovered by the Boston sealer Topaz, commanded by Captain Mayhew Folger of Nantucket, Massachusetts.^[13] Adams gave to Folger the Bounty's azimuth compass and marine chronometer.

Seventeen years later, in 1825, HMS Blossom, on a voyage of exploration under Captain Frederick William Beechey, arrived on Christmas Day off Pitcairn and spent 19 days there. Beechey later recorded this in his 1831 published account of the voyage, as did one of his crew, John Bechervaise, in his 1839 Thirty-Six Years of a Seafaring Life by an Old Quarter Master. Beechey wrote a detailed account of the mutiny as recounted to him by the last survivor, Adams. Bechervaise, who described the life of the islanders, says he found the remains of Bounty and took some pieces of wood from it which were turned into souvenirs such as snuff boxes.

Mission log

1787

16 August: William Bligh is ordered to command a breadfruit gathering expedition to Tahiti

3 September: Bounty launched from the drydock at Deptford

4–9 October: Bounty navigated with a partial crew to an ammunition loading station, south of Deptford

10–12 October: Onload of arms and weapons at Long Reach

15 October – 4 November: Navigated to Spithead for final crew and stores onload

29 November: Made anchor at St Helens, Isle of Wight

23 December: Departed English waters for Tahiti

1788

5–10 January: Anchored off Tenerife, Canary Islands

5 February: Crossed equator at 21.50 degrees West

26 February: Marked at 100 leagues from the eastern coast of Brazil

23 March: Arrived Tierra del Fuego

9 April: Entered the Strait of Magellan

25 April: Abandoned attempt to round Cape Horn and turned east

22 May: Within sight of the Cape of Good Hope

24 May – 29 June: Anchored at Simon's Bay

28 July: Within sight of Saint Paul's Island, west of Van Diemen's Land

20 August – 2 September: Anchored Van Diemen's Land

19 September: Past the southern tip of New Zealand

26 October: Arrived Tahiti

25 December: Shifted mooring to "Toahroah" harbour, Pare "Oparre", Tahiti. Bounty ran aground.^[14]

1789

4 April: Weighed anchor from the harbour at Pare, Tahiti^[14]

23–25 April: Anchored for provisions off Annamooka (Tonga)

26 April: Departed Annamooka for the West Indies

28 April: Mutiny – Captain Bligh and loyal crew members set adrift in Bounty's launch

From this point, Bligh's mission log reflects the voyage of the Bounty launch towards the Dutch East Indies

29 April: Bounty launch arrives at Tofua

2 May: Bounty launch castaways flee Tofua after being attacked by natives

28 May: Landfall on a small island north of New Hebrides. Named "Restoration Island" by Captain Bligh

30–31 May: Bounty launch transits to a second nearby island, named "Sunday Island"

1–2 June: Bounty launch transits 42 miles to a third island, named "Turtle Island"

3 June: Bounty launch sails into the open ocean towards Australia

13 June: Bounty launch lands at Timor

14 June: Launch castaways circle Timor and land at Coupang. Mutiny is reported to Dutch authorities

Bligh's mission log from this point reflects his return to England onboard various merchant vessels and sailing ships

20 August – 10 September: Sailed via schooner to Pasuruan, Java

11–12 September: In transit to Surabaya

15–17 September: In transit to the town of Crissey, Madura Strait

18–22 September: In transit to Semarang

26 September – 1 October: In transit to Batavia (Jakarta)

16 October: Sailed for Europe on board the Dutch packet SS Vlydte

16 December: Arrived Cape of Good Hope

1790

13 January: Sailed from Cape of Good Hope for England

13 March: Arrived Portsmouth Harbour

Crew list

Page one of Bligh's list of mutineers, starting with Fletcher Christian

John Fryer

Peter Heywood

John Adams aka Alexander Smith

In the immediate wake of the mutiny, all but four of the loyal crew joined Bligh in the long boat for the voyage to Timor, and eventually made it safely back to England, unless otherwise noted in the table below. Four were detained against their will on Bounty for their needed skills and for lack of space on the long boat. The mutineers first returned to Tahiti, where most of the survivors were later captured by Pandora and taken to England for trial. Nine mutineers continued their flight from the law and eventually settled on Pitcairn Island, where all but one died before their fate became known to the outside world.