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H.M.S. Bounty on April 27, 1789, She Was an Unrated, Unassuming Little

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H.M.S. Bounty on April 27, 1789, She Was an Unrated, Unassuming Little On April 27, 1789, she was an unrated, unassuming little ship halfway through a low-priority agricultural mission for the Royal Navy. A day later, she was launched into immortality as the H.M.S. Bounty site of history’s most famous mutiny. THE MISSION THE SHIP THE MUTINY Needless to say, it was never supposed to be Yes, it had sails and masts, Originally constructed For reasons having to do with the weather and this much trouble. but Bounty didn’t carry as the bulk cargo hauler the life cycle of breadfruit Royal Navy Lt. enough guns to be rated Bethia, the vessel was trees, the Bounty’s stay William Bligh was as a warship and therefore renamed and her masts in the tropical paradise commissioned to take could not officially be called and rigging completely of Tahiti stretched to the newly outfitted a “ship” — only an armed redesigned to Lt. Bligh’s five months. 24 days Bounty to the island transport. own specifications. after weighing anchor of Tahiti to pick up By any reckoning, Bounty to begin the arduous some breadfruit trees. was very small for the voyage home, Christian These were then to be mission it was asked — brandishing a bayonet carefully transported to perform and the and screaming “I am in to the West Indies, dangerous waters it hell!” — led 18 mutineers into Bligh’s cabin and where it was hoped would have to sail. Breadfruit. that their starchy, packed him off the ship. William Bligh, in melon-like fruit Bligh responded by cementing his place in naval a picture from his would make cheap history with a 4,000-mile journey, in an memoir of the mutiny. food for slaves. open boat with no maps or charts and Along the way, almost no food, to the Dutch settlement however, Bligh of Kupang in West Timor (see map). proved that he was The mutineers fared worse. Those who much better at ship returned to Tahiti were picked up by management than he a vengeful Royal Navy and tried Ship’s boat was at people management. for mutiny; three were hanged. First in the long line for Bligh’s Christian, eight other crewmen torrential verbal abuse was the and 17 Tahitians finally settled on man he had promoted tiny, uninhabited Pitcairn Island, to be his first where most died violent deaths. lieutenant, Fletcher Their descendants, however, Christian. Christian live on Pitcairn to this day. finally exchanged this dubious leadership Bounty’s voyage position for another Breadfruit Bligh’s open-boat journey greenhouse area one, as the de facto Bounty’s moves after the mutiny leader of the sailors NEW GUINEA who seized the ship Tofua Site of mutiny Pitcairn in the early hours of Kupang Is. April 28, 1789. AUSTRALIA The mutineers tossed Bligh and 18 loyalists Fletcher Christian’s In addition to more than a thousand RTA BUS FOR SCALE into the ship’s boat career didn’t last long breadfruit trees, 46 officers and men called TASMANIA NEW ZEALAND to take their chances. enough for anyone to the 120-foot Bounty home during its SOURCES: Royal Naval Museum; “Bligh” by Sam McKinney paint a picture of him. 16-month voyage. (International Marine Publishing, 1989); tallshipbounty.org WILLIAM NEFF | THE PLAIN DEALER.
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