How It Began

It all started in 1787 when the explorer and  botanist Sir Joseph Banks theorised that the breadfruit could be transplanted to the West Indies as a source of cheap but nutritious food. Banks was from a very privileged background but unlike many of his kind was not interested in a life of excess but rather used his wealth and position to seek knowledge. He had in fact travelled with Captain Cook to Australia and the South Pacific and was also a well respected botanist in charge of Kew Gardens. He selected one of the gardeners at Kew, David Nelson, who had also travelled with Cook as a botanist, to go on the voyage. Banks wrote to his friend, Charles Jenkins of his ideas. He then set about collecting funds and purchased a ship for just under £2000. Banks and Nelson then oversaw its refitting to withstand the tropical voyage and had the hold rebuilt to carry hundreds of potted trees. The vessel was then renamed The Bounty.

Banks then set about appointing the crew: Sailing Master, Surgeon, First Midshipman, and one 'enlisted man', gardener William Brown as well as David Nelson as botanist. He selected as Commander a Navy Lieutenant who had sailed with Nelson on Cook's last voyage, 33 year old William Bligh. The rest of the crew of 45 were then hired, including Midshipman, Fletcher Christian.
 

Actual records show that Bligh may not have been the sadist he is commonly thought to be, an idea emphasised by countless movies; although historians say that Mel Gibson's The Bounty is fairly accurate. Sailors at the time were often convicts and other unsavory types and were generally treated harshly to keep them under control. Though flogging was a normal part of sea life Bligh apparently ordered only one flogging in the ten months it took to reach Otaheite (Tahiti), he yelled when others captains would have flogged and flogged when others would have hanged. He also divided the watch into eight hours rather than the accepted twelve, there are also other documented incidents of what was regarded at that time as "leniency". Being very interested in science he was also very particular about hygiene and diet. He was an excellent sailor and navigator and carried the ship through extremely stormy seas with no loss of life, except for the surgeon who died as a result of too much drink. During the voyage he promoted his friend, Fletcher Christian, to Master's Mate, effectively second in command.

When they finally arrived at their destination and discovered that the breadfruit trees would take five or six months to be planted another commander would have left someone, probably the botanist and a small team, to oversee this and set sail again in exploration. Instead Bligh made probably the biggest mistake of his career, and hardly one that an evil Commander would have made, he effectively gave the entire crew six months shore leave with pay.
 

The mutineers turning Lt Bligh and part of the officers and crew adrift from HMAV Bounty, 29 April 1789 - Robert Dodd 1790
 

The men quickly became used to a life of ease and formed relationships with local women. But the breadfruit were ready and it was time to set sail for Jamaica. Many of the crew were in their teens and twenties and only half a dozen were older than the 33 year old Bligh. Bligh was a single-minded man and did have a nasty temper which usually left as quickly as it came; just a few weeks out of Tahiti he started to raise hell about missing coconuts. Fletcher Christian, who had been Bligh's friend and only confidante, decided he was tired of being yelled at by his friend (though commanding officer) and he missed Maimiti, his local "wife". He started to act like the spoilt 23 year old rich kid he was and stirred up dissention among the crew. They already missed the relaxed life of the last six months and many missed their local girls and were not looking forward to a year or so at sea caring for plants.

On the morning of April 29th 1789, Bligh did not appear on deck at sunrise, most unusual for such a precise and serious Commander. Only severe illness would keep someone like him off the deck. It is commonly thought that worry and fear over the unrest had made Bligh do something completely uncharacteristic, get blind-drunk on the ship's rum. In those days guns and rum were kept under lock and key on a ship and only the captain held the keys. And ship's rum was nothing remotely like smooth Appleton Estate but rather was raw crude alcohol similar to the illegally distilled brew known in Jamaica as "Johncrow Batty".

This lapse in character gave Christian and his co-conspirators the time they needed. In no short order and without any bloodshed Bligh and eighteen of the crew were sent off in a launch with food and water for only a few days. Here again Bligh showed his navigational expertise as with no charts or compass and only a pocket-watch and a sextant he was able to reach Tofua, for supplies. Here one of his men was killed by angry natives. The nearest place after would have been Fiji, but as they would be defenseless against the cannibals Bligh headed for Timor where they would be able to get ship back for England. The journey took forty seven days and had no casualties, except for the man killed at Tofua, an exceptional feat. Unfortunately several of the men who had survived this ordeal died of yellow fever in Batavia waiting for transport back to England. Bligh himself arrived back in England in March of 1790.

After he returned home Bligh underwent a Court Martial in October of 1790 and was exonerated. In 1791 he was given command of HMS Providence and, along with HMS Assistance, successfully brought breadfruit and a host of other fruit trees and botanicals to the West Indies. With properly outfitted ships manned by experienced crews the two year voyage was this time uneventful. On his return trip he carried local specimens for his sponsor Sir Joseph Banks. These included the ackee, thought to have originated in East Africa. This fruit was given the botanical name blighia sapida in his honour.

Bligh later went on to become Admiral of the Navy and Governor of New South Wales in Australia but not without being the object of two more mutinies, but that's a tale for another teller.

Christian and his supporters did not fare so well. They sailed first to Tubuai but were terrorised by the locals. They then returned to Tahiti where they dropped off sixteen of their number including the Bligh supporters who could not fit in the lifeboat. The remaining nine men along with eleven Tahitian women, including Christian's wife Maimiti, and six Tahitian men set sail again and eventually reached the deserted Pitcairn Island. By later accounts the mutineers continued to live a life of excess with the Tahitian men basically as slaves.

An American ship, the Topaz, landed at Pitcairn in 1808 and found only one mutineer, John Adams, still alive along with nine of the Tahitian women. Maimiti told them that the other Englishmen, including Christian, and the Tahitian men had all killed each other. There were however several children which had been born to the mutineers and Tahitian women including Christian and Maimiti's two sons and one daughter.

The sixteen left on Tahiti did not fare much better. They were picked up by the HMS Pandora whose captain, Edward Edwards, was very much like the Bligh of fiction and after the ship sunk on the Great Barrier Reef, only ten of them reached England for trial. Bligh spoke on behalf of those who had opposed the mutiny as well as those who had neither supported nor opposed it and they were acquitted. Four were found guilty and of these one was pardoned and three hanged.

So next time you roast a breadfruit don't ever think of it as something simple and easy to cook!

Bounty replica at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, NSW, Australia
 

Crew of the Bounty	Bligh's Account of the Mutiny
The great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Bligh	Christian's children

Read Part Two: Jamaica's Bounty