Mutiny on the Bounty

The Mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh. According to accounts, the sailors were attracted to the "idyllic" life and sexual opportunities afforded on the Pacific island of Tahiti. It has also been argued that they were motivated by Bligh's allegedly harsh treatment of them.

Eighteen mutineers set Bligh afloat in a small boat with eighteen of the twenty-two crew loyal to him. To avoid detection and prevent desertion, the mutineers then variously settled on Pitcairn Island or on Tahiti and burned the Bounty off Pitcairn.

In an extraordinary feat of seamanship, Bligh navigated the 23-foot (7 m) open launch on a 47-day voyage to Timor in the Dutch East Indies, equipped with a quadrant and pocket watch and without charts or compass. He recorded the distance as 3618 nmi. He then returned to Britain and reported the mutiny to the Admiralty on 15 March 1790, 2 years and 11 weeks after his original departure.

The British government dispatched HMS Pandora to capture the mutineers, and Pandora reached Tahiti on 23 March 1791. Four of the men from the Bounty came on board soon after its arrival, and ten more were arrested within a few weeks. These fourteen were imprisoned in a makeshift cell on Pandoras deck. Pandora ran aground on part of the Great Barrier Reef on 29 August 1791, with the loss of 31 of the crew and four of the prisoners. The surviving ten prisoners were eventually repatriated to England, tried in a naval court, with three hanged, four acquitted, and three pardoned.

Descendants of some of the mutineers and Tahitians still live on Pitcairn. The mutiny has been commemorated in books, films, and songs.

The ship and mission
His Majesty's Ship (HMS) Bounty began her career as the collier Bethia, a small vessel built in 1784 at the Blaydes shipyard in Hull. On 26 May 1787 (JJ Colledge/D Lyon say 23 May), she was bought by the Royal Navy for £2,600 refitted and renamed Bounty. Bligh was appointed commanding lieutenant of Bounty on 16 August 1787, at the age of 32, after a career that included a tour as sailing master of James Cook's HMS Resolution during Cook's third and final voyage (1776–79).

The Royal Navy bought the ship for a single mission in support of an experiment: she was to travel to Tahiti; pick up breadfruit plants; and transport them to the West Indies, in the hopes they would grow well there and become a cheap source of food for slaves. The experiment, promoted through a prize offered by the Royal Society, was proposed by Sir Joseph Banks, who recommended Bligh as commander, Banks at the time being the unofficial director of Kew Gardens.

In June 1787, Bounty was refitted at Deptford. The great captain's cabin was converted to house the potted breadfruit plants, and glazed windows were fitted to the upper deck, while a lead lining was installed on the floor to catch and re-use run-off water used to feed the plants. Bligh was quartered in a small cramped cabin next to crew and officers.

Outward voyage and arrival
On 23 December 1787, Bounty sailed from Spithead for Tahiti with a complement of 46 officers and men. For a full month, she attempted to round Cape Horn, but adverse weather blocked her. Bligh ordered her turned about, and proceeded east, rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the width of the Indian Ocean. During the outward voyage, Bligh demoted the ship's sailing master, John Fryer, replacing him with Fletcher Christian. This act seriously damaged the relationship between Bligh and Fryer, and Fryer would later claim Bligh's act was entirely personal. Bounty reached Tahiti on 26 October 1788, after ten months at sea.

Bligh and his crew spent five months in Tahiti, then known as "Otaheite," collecting and preparing a total of 1,015 breadfruit plants; the five-month layover was unplanned, required to allow the plants to reach the point of development where they could be safely transported by ship. Bligh allowed the crew to live ashore and care for the potted breadfruit plants, and they became socialized 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 of the Bounty were also said to have formed "connections" with native women.

Bligh was not surprised by his crew's reaction to the Tahitians. He recorded his analysis: "The women are handsome ... and have sufficient delicacy to make them admired and beloved – The chiefs have taken such a liking to our people that they have rather encouraged their stay among them than otherwise, and even made promises of large possessions. Under these and many other attendant circumstances equally desirable it is therefore now not to be wondered at ... that a set of sailors led by officers and void of connections ... should be governed by such powerful inducement ... to fix themselves in the midst of plenty in the finest island in the world where they need not labour, and where the allurements of dissipation are more than equal to anything that can be conceived."

- A Narrative of the Mutiny, etc., by Lieut. W. Bligh, 1790, p. 9.

Tensions rise
Despite the relaxed atmosphere, relations between Bligh and his men, and particularly between Bligh and Christian, continued to deteriorate. Christian was routinely humiliated by the captain—often in front of the crew and the native Tahitians—for real or imagined slackness, while severe punishments were handed out to men whose carelessness had led to the loss or theft of equipment. Floggings, rarely administered during the outward voyage, now became a common occurrence; as a consequence, crewmen Millward, Muspratt, and Churchill deserted the ship. They were quickly recaptured, and a search of their belongings revealed a list of names which included those of Christian and Heywood. Bligh confronted the pair and accused them of complicity in the desertion plot, which they strenuously denied; without further corroboration, Bligh could not act against them.

As the date for departure grew closer, Bligh's outbursts against his officers became more frequent. One witness reported: "Whatever fault was found, Mr. Christian was sure to bear the brunt." Tensions rose among the men, who faced the prospect of a long and dangerous voyage that would take them through the uncharted Endeavour Strait, followed by many months of hard sailing. Bligh was impatient to be away, but in Hough's words he "failed to anticipate how his company would react to the severity and austerity of life at sea ... after five dissolute, hedonistic months at Tahiti". On 5 April, Bounty finally weighed anchor and made for the open sea with its breadfruit cargo.

The mutiny
The mutiny occurred on 28 April, some 23 days out and 1,300 miles west of Tahiti. Fletcher Christian had that morning contemplated making a raft and deserting the ship by paddling around 30 nmi to the nearby island of Tofua. Instead he and several of his followers entered Bligh's cabin, which he always left unlocked. They awakened Bligh and pushed him on deck wearing only his nightshirt, where he was guarded by Christian holding a bayonet. When Bligh entreated Christian to be reasonable, Christian would only reply: "I am in hell, I am in hell!" Despite strong words and threats 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, 18 joined the mutiny, two were passive, and 22 remained loyal to Bligh.

The mutineers ordered Bligh, the ship's master, two midshipmen, the surgeon's mate (Ledward), and the ship's clerk into Bounty's launch. Several more men voluntarily joined Bligh rather than remaining aboard, as they knew that those who remained on board would be considered de jure mutineers under the Articles of War.

Bligh's epic voyage
In all, 18 of the loyal crew were in the launch with Bligh; 4 other loyalists were forced to stay with the 18 mutineers and 2 passive crew. Bligh and his crew headed for Tofua (in a bay that they subsequently called "Murderers' Cove") to augment their meager provisions. The only casualty during this voyage was a crewman, John Norton, who was stoned to death by some natives of Tofua.

Bligh then navigated the 23-foot (7 m) open launch on a 47-day voyage to Timor in the Dutch East Indies. Equipped with a quadrant and a pocket watch and with no charts or compass, he recorded the distance as 3618 nmi. He was chased by cannibals in what is now known as Bligh Water, Fiji, and passed through the Torres Strait along the way, landing in Kupang, Timor, on 14 June. Shortly after the launch reached Timor, the cook and botanist died. Three other crewmen died in the coming months.

Lieutenant Bligh returned to Britain and reported the mutiny to the Admiralty on 15 March 1790, 2 years and 11 weeks after leaving England.

Mutineers in Tahiti
Meanwhile, the mutineers sailed for the island of Tubuai, where they tried to settle. After three months of being attacked by the island's natives they returned to Tahiti. Twelve of the mutineers and 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.

Two of the mutineers died in Tahiti between 1789 and 1790. Matthew Thompson shot Charles Churchill and was subsequently stoned to death by Churchill's Tahitian family in an act of vendetta.

Last voyage of the Pandora
HMS Pandora, under the command of Captain Edward Edwards, was dispatched on 7 November 1790 to search for the Bounty and the mutineers. Pandora carried twice the normal complement of master's mates, petty officers, and midshipmen, as it was expected that the extras would man the Bounty when it was recovered from the mutineers.

Pandora reached Tahiti on 23 March 1791. Four of the men from the Bounty came on board Pandora soon after its arrival, and ten more were arrested within a few weeks. These fourteen, mutineers and loyal crew alike, were imprisoned in a makeshift cell on Pandora's deck, which they derisively called "Pandora's Box".

On 8 May 1791, Pandora left Tahiti, spending about three months visiting islands to the west of Tahiti in search of Bounty and the remaining mutineers, without finding anything except flotsam (including some spars and a yard on Palmerston Island). Heading west through the Torres Strait, Pandora ran aground on a reef (part of the Great Barrier Reef) on 29 August 1791. The ship sank the next morning, and 31 of the crew and four of the prisoners (Skinner, Sumner, Stewart, and Hillbrandt) were lost. The remaining 89 of the ship's company and ten prisoners (released from their cell at the last moment by William Moulter, a boatswain's mate on the Pandora, ) assembled in four small launches, and sailed for Timor, in a voyage similar to that of Bligh. They arrived at Timor on 16 September 1791.

Court-martial
After being repatriated to Britain, the ten surviving prisoners were tried by a naval court. During the trial, great importance was attached to which men had been seen to be holding weapons during the critical moments of the mutiny, as under the Articles of War, failure to act when able to prevent a mutiny was considered no different from being an active mutineer. In the judgement delivered on 18 September 1792, four men whom Bligh had designated as innocent were acquitted. Two were found guilty, but pardoned; one of these was Peter Heywood, who later rose to the rank of captain himself; the second was James Morrison, who also continued his naval career and died at sea. Another was reprieved due to a legal technicality and later also received a pardon. The other three men were convicted, and hanged aboard HMS Brunswick on 29 October 1792. In other trials, both Bligh and Edwards were court-martialled for the loss of their ships (an automatic proceeding under British naval law, and not indicative of any particular suspicion of guilt). Both were acquitted.

Bligh resumed his naval career and went on to attain the rank of Vice Admiral. His career was marked by another insurrection. In 1808, while Bligh was Governor of New South Wales, troops of New South Wales arrested him in an incident known as the Rum Rebellion.

Second breadfruit expedition
Even before Edwards had returned from his search for Bounty, HMS Providence (1791) and her tender Assistant began a second voyage to collect breadfruit trees on 3 August 1791. This mission was again championed by Joseph Banks and again commanded by Bligh, now promoted from Lieutenant to Captain. On this second voyage, they successfully collected 2,126 breadfruit plants and hundreds of other botanical specimens and delivered them to the West Indies. The slaves on Jamaica, however, refused to eat the breadfruit, so the main purpose of the expedition was ultimately a failure. However, breadfruit is today a staple in Jamaica. Departing Tahiti on 19 July 1792, Bligh once again successfully navigated the Torres Strait.

Mutineers on Pitcairn Island
Immediately after setting sixteen men ashore in Tahiti in September 1789, Fletcher Christian, eight other crewmen, six Tahitian men, and 18 women, one with a baby, set sail in the Bounty hoping to elude the Royal Navy. According to a journal kept by Edward Young, one of the mutineers, all but three of the Tahitian "women brought to Pitcairn had been kidnapped" when Christian set sail without warning them, the purpose being to kidnap 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 the 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. Some of her remains, such as her ballast stones, are still partially visible in its waters. Her rudder is displayed in the Fiji Museum in Suva. An anchor of the Bounty was recovered by Luis Marden in Bounty Bay in 1957.

The Pitcairn Island community began life with bright prospects. There was ample food, water, and land for everyone, and the climate was mild. Although many of the Polynesians were homesick, and the Britons knew they were marooned on Pitcairn forever, they settled into life on Pitcairn fairly quickly. A number of children were born.

At the time the community on Pitcairn was first visited by outsiders, John Adams "was the sole surviving mutineer". Little is agreed upon regarding Fletcher Christian's role once the mutineers were established on Pitcairn Island. Adams claimed "Christian 'was always cheerful'" but also claimed Christian would: "...retreat and brood [in a cave, and] had 'by many acts of cruelty and inhumanity, brought on himself the hatred and detestation of his companions. Adams variously claimed that Christian had been killed "in a single massacre that occurred on the island about four years after arrival" and that Christian had "committed suicide". Adams at another point claimed the "mutineers had divided into parties, 'seeking every opportunity on both sides to put each other to death. While the details were inconsistent, Adams usually agreed with the journal of Young: that Christian died as the result of a massacre: "The massacre ... had taken place in several waves of violence, and principally arose from the fact that the Englishmen had come to regard their [Tahitian] friends as slaves." The women, "passed around from one 'husband' to the other, as men died and the balance of power shifted", eventually "rebelled" as well.

Death of Fletcher Christian
In 1793, a conflict broke out on Pitcairn Island between the mutineers and the Tahitian men who sailed with them. Fletcher Christian and four of the mutineers (Jack Williams, Isaac Martin, John Mills, and William Brown) were killed by the Tahitians. All six of the Tahitian men were killed during the on-and-off fighting, some by the widows of the murdered mutineers and others by each other.

Fletcher Christian was survived by Maimiti and their son Thursday October Christian (sometimes called "Friday October Christian"). Rumours persisted that Christian left the island and made it back to England. There are other reports that Christian actually committed suicide.

Of the Tahitian women, early on, one died in a fall while gathering eggs from a cliff and another from a respiratory illness (thus precipitating the taking of the Tahitian men's consorts).

Christian's death caused a leadership vacuum on the island. Two of the four surviving mutineers, Ned Young and John Adams (also known as Alexander Smith), assumed leadership, and some peace followed, until William McCoy created a still and began brewing an alcoholic beverage from a native plant. The mutineers began drinking excessively and making life miserable for the women.

The women revolted a number of times—with the men continually "granting pardons" (each time threatening to execute the leaders of the next revolt)—and some of the women attempted to leave the island on a makeshift raft; it swamped in the "bay". Life in Pitcairn continued thus until the deaths of McCoy and Quintal, and the destruction of the still.

William McCoy died after a drunken fall. Matthew Quintal was subsequently killed by John Adams and Ned Young after threatening to kill everyone. Eventually John Adams and Ned Young were reconciled with the women, and the community began to flourish.

Ned Young succumbed in 1800 to asthma, the first man to die of natural causes. After Young's death in 1800, Adams became the leader of the community, and took responsibility for educating its members. Adams started holding regular Sunday services and teaching the Christian religion to the settlement. His gentleness and tolerance enabled the small community to thrive, and peace was restored to Pitcairn Island, with the population measuring one man, nine Tahitian women and dozens of children.

Later contacts
The islanders reported that it was not until 27 December 1795 that the first ship after the Bounty was seen from the island, but as she did not approach the land, they could not make out to what nation she belonged. A second appeared some time in 1801, but did not attempt to communicate with them. A third came sufficiently near to see their habitations, but did not venture to send a boat ashore.

The American trading ship Topaz, under the command of Mayhew Folger, was the first to visit the island and communicate with the inhabitants when the crew spent 10 hours at Pitcairn in February 1808. A report of Folger's find was forwarded to the Admiralty—which mentioned the discovery and the position of the island at latitude 25° 2' south and longitude 130° west; however, this rediscovery was not known to Sir Thomas Staines, who commanded a Royal Navy flotilla of two ships (HMS Briton and HMS Tagus), which found the island at 25° 4' S. (by meridian observation) on 17 September 1814. Staines sent a party ashore and wrote a detailed report for the Admiralty. In November 2009 a logbook kept by midshipman J.B. Hoodthorp of HMS Briton detailing the first contact with the mutineers was auctioned for over £40,000 by Cheffin's Auction House in Cambridge.

In 1808, when the Topaz reached Pitcairn Island, only John Adams, nine women, and some children still lived. In 1825, Adams was granted amnesty for his mutiny; Pitcairn's capital, Adamstown, is named for him. On 30 November 1838, the Pitcairn Islands (which include the uninhabited islands of Henderson, Ducie and Oeno) were incorporated into the British Empire. In 1856, the British government granted Norfolk Island to the Pitcairners for settlement since population growth was rendering their original refuge uninhabitable.

The Pitcairn Islands are a British Overseas Territory with a population of about 48. Bounty Day is celebrated on 23 January by Pitcairn Islanders in commemoration of the 1790 burning of the Bounty, and on 8 June as the national holiday on Norfolk Island to commemorate the 1856 arrival of settlers from Pitcairn Island.

Mission details
The details of the voyage of the HMAV Bounty are very well documented, largely in part to the effort of William Bligh to maintain an accurate log before, during, and after the actual mutiny. The Bounty's crew list is also well chronicled, down to and including the names of every seaman on board, something which larger ships in the rating system only occasionally were capable of due to crews in the hundreds whereas the Bounty carried fewer than fifty personnel.

Mission log

 * 1787
 * 16 August: William Bligh is ordered to command a breadfruit gathering expedition to Tahiti
 * 3 September: HMAV 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 moores to Owharre Harbor, Huahine, Society Islands
 * 1789
 * 4 April: Weighed anchor from Huahine
 * 23–25 April: Anchored for provisions off Annamooka (Tonga)
 * 26 April: Departed Annamooka for the West Indies
 * 28 April: Mutiny on the Bounty. Captain Bligh and loyal crew members set adrift in the Bounty's launch
 * From this point, Captain 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 forty two 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
 * Captain 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
In the 18th century Royal Navy, rank and position on board ship was defined by a mix of two hierarchies, an official hierarchy of ranks (commissioned officers, warrant officers, petty officers and seamen) and a conventionally recognized social divide between gentlemen and non-gentlemen. Royal Navy uniforms were often used to denote rank and position on board ships; however, due to the lengthy and isolated voyage of the Bounty, uniforms were not worn daily on board while the ship was underway.

At the top of the official rank hierarchy were the commissioned officers — on a larger warship, the commissioned officers included the captain, several lieutenants to command watches, and the officers commanding the Royal Marines on board the ship. The Bounty, however, carried no marines, and no commissioned officers other than Lieutenant Bligh himself, who served as master and commander of the ship. As he was effectively the captain, he occupied a private cabin.

Next below the commissioned officers came the warrant officers, such as the sailing master, surgeon, boatswain, purser and gunner, who were as likely to be considered skilled tradesmen as gentlemen. As the senior warrant officer, the sailing master and his mates were entitled to berth with the lieutenants in the wardroom (though in this case there were no lieutenants there); other warrant officers berthed in the gunroom. Like commissioned officers, warrant officers had the right of access to the quarterdeck and were immune from punishment by flogging. They held their warrants directly from the navy, and the captain could not alter their rank. Roman Catholics were allowed to serve as warrant officers, but not as commissioned officers.

Below the warrant officers came the petty officers. The petty officers included two separate groups: young gentlemen training to be future commissioned officers, often serving as midshipmen or master's mates, and tradesmen working as skilled assistants to the warrant officers. Although the young gentlemen technically were ratings, holding a rank below warrant officers at the mercy of the captain, as aspiring future commissioned officers they were considered socially superior and were often given a watch (with authority over some warrant officers) or a minor command.

Finally, at the bottom of the hierarchical tree, were the seamen, divided into able seamen and ordinary seamen. Aboard some vessels, an even lower grade existed called landsman, who were seamen-in-training with very little or no naval skill. On board the Bounty, due to the vessel's long and fairly important mission, the only seamen mustered into the crew were able seamen – the ship did not carry any ordinary seamen or landsmen.

Note, however, that the young gentlemen might also be rated as seamen rather than midshipmen on the ship's books; though they were still considered the social superiors of the seamen, petty officers (excluding other young gentlemen) and most warrant officers and could be given authority over them.

In the immediate wake of the mutiny, all but four of the loyal crew joined Captain 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 the 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 the Pandora and taken to England for trial. Nine mutineers continued their flight from the law and eventually settled Pitcairn Island, where all but one died before their fate became known to the outside world.


 * {| class="wikitable sortable" cellpadding="5"

! Category ! Name ! Position ! Mutiny Status ! Notes
 * + Crew of the Bounty in 1788–89
 * align="center"|Commissioned Officers
 * Lieutenant William Bligh
 * Commanding Lieutenant
 * Also Acting Purser; died in London on 6 December 1817
 * rowspan="4" align="center"|Wardroom Officers
 * John Fryer
 * Sailing Master
 * loyal
 * died at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk on 26 May 1817
 * Fletcher Christian
 * Master's Mate promoted mid-cruise to Acting Lieutenant
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; killed 20 September 1793
 * William Elphinstone
 * Master's Mate
 * loyal
 * died in Batavia October 1789
 * Thomas Huggan
 * Surgeon
 * died in Tahiti 9 December 1788 before mutiny
 * rowspan="4" align="center"|Cockpit Officers
 * John Hallett
 * Midshipman
 * loyal
 * Died 1794 of illness
 * Thomas Hayward
 * Midshipman
 * loyal
 * Died 1798 in shipwreck
 * Thomas Ledward
 * Surgeon's Mate
 * loyal
 * promoted to Surgeon after death of Thomas Huggan; presumed lost at sea in sinking of Welfare 1789 but reported to have been ship surgeon on HMS Discovery in 1791 and died several years later
 * John Samuel
 * Clerk
 * loyal
 * rowspan="10" align="center"|Warrant Officers
 * William Cole
 * Boatswain
 * loyal
 * Charles Churchill
 * Master-at-Arms (Ship's Corporal)
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; murdered by Matthew Thompson in Tahiti April 1790 prior to trial
 * William Peckover
 * Gunner
 * loyal
 * Joseph Coleman
 * Armourer
 * loyal
 * detained on Bounty against his will; to Tahiti; tried and acquitted
 * Peter Linkletter
 * Quartermaster
 * loyal
 * died in Batavia October 1789
 * John Norton
 * Quartermaster
 * loyal
 * killed by natives in Tofua 2 May 1789
 * Lawrence LeBogue
 * Sailmaker
 * loyal
 * went with Bligh; arrived safely in England – did join Bligh on the second breadfruit expedition
 * Henry Hillbrandt
 * Cooper
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; drowned in irons during wreck of Pandora 29 August 1791
 * William Purcell
 * Carpenter
 * loyal
 * reportedly died in Haslar hospital 10 March 1834 – last survivor of the Bounty crew
 * David Nelson
 * Botanist (civilian)
 * loyal
 * died 20 July 1789 at Coupang
 * rowspan="4" align="center"|Midshipmen mustered as Able Seamen
 * Peter Heywood
 * Midshipman
 * mutinied
 * detained against will (?) on Bounty; to Tahiti; sentenced to death, but pardoned; aka Roger Byam in novels by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
 * George Stewart
 * Midshipman
 * loyal
 * detained against will on Bounty; to Tahiti; killed after being hit by gangway at wreck of Pandora 29 August 1791
 * Robert Tinkler
 * Midshipman
 * loyal
 * Ned Young
 * Midshipman
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; died 25 December 1800
 * rowspan="12" align="center"|Petty Officers
 * James Morrison
 * Boatswain's Mate
 * mutinied
 * stayed on Bounty; to Tahiti; sentenced to death, but pardoned. Lost on HMS Blenheim 1807
 * George Simpson
 * Quartermaster's Mate
 * loyal
 * John Williams
 * Armourer's Mate
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; killed 20 September 1793
 * Thomas McIntosh
 * Carpenter's Mate
 * loyal
 * detained against will on Bounty; to Tahiti; tried and acquitted
 * Charles Norman
 * Carpenter's Mate
 * loyal
 * detained against will on Bounty; to Tahiti; tried and acquitted
 * John Mills
 * Gunner's Mate
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; killed 20 September 1793
 * William Muspratt
 * Tailor
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; sentenced to death, but released on appeal and pardoned. Died on HMS Bellerophon 1797
 * John Smith
 * Steward
 * loyal
 * went with Bligh; arrived safely in England – did join Bligh on the second breadfruit expedition
 * Thomas Hall
 * Cook
 * loyal
 * died from a tropical disease (probably malaria) in Batavia on 11 October 1789
 * Richard Skinner
 * Barber
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; drowned in irons during wreck of Pandora 29 August 1791
 * William Brown
 * Botanist's Assistant
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; killed 20 September 1793
 * Robert Lamb
 * Butcher
 * loyal
 * died at sea 11 October 1789 en route Batavia to Cape Town
 * rowspan="11" align="center"|Able Seamen
 * John Adams
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; pardoned 1825, died 1829; aka Alexander Smith
 * Thomas Burkitt
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; condemned and hanged 29 October 1792 at Spithead
 * Michael Byrne
 * Able Seaman
 * loyal
 * detained against will on Bounty; to Tahiti; tried and acquitted
 * Thomas Ellison
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; condemned and hanged 29 October 1792 at Spithead
 * Isaac Martin
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; killed 20 September 1793
 * William McCoy
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; committed suicide 1797/98
 * John Millward
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * condemned and hanged 29 October 1792 at Spithead
 * Matthew Quintal
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; "executed" 1799 by Adams and Young
 * John Sumner
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; drowned in irons during wreck of Pandora 29 August 1791
 * Matthew Thompson
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; executed by Tahitians in April 1790 prior to trial after killing Charles Churchill
 * James Valentine
 * Ordinary Seaman
 * died of scurvy at sea 9 October 1788 prior to mutiny
 * }
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; pardoned 1825, died 1829; aka Alexander Smith
 * Thomas Burkitt
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; condemned and hanged 29 October 1792 at Spithead
 * Michael Byrne
 * Able Seaman
 * loyal
 * detained against will on Bounty; to Tahiti; tried and acquitted
 * Thomas Ellison
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; condemned and hanged 29 October 1792 at Spithead
 * Isaac Martin
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; killed 20 September 1793
 * William McCoy
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; committed suicide 1797/98
 * John Millward
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * condemned and hanged 29 October 1792 at Spithead
 * Matthew Quintal
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Pitcairn; "executed" 1799 by Adams and Young
 * John Sumner
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; drowned in irons during wreck of Pandora 29 August 1791
 * Matthew Thompson
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; executed by Tahitians in April 1790 prior to trial after killing Charles Churchill
 * James Valentine
 * Ordinary Seaman
 * died of scurvy at sea 9 October 1788 prior to mutiny
 * }
 * Matthew Thompson
 * Able Seaman
 * mutinied
 * to Tahiti; executed by Tahitians in April 1790 prior to trial after killing Charles Churchill
 * James Valentine
 * Ordinary Seaman
 * died of scurvy at sea 9 October 1788 prior to mutiny
 * }
 * died of scurvy at sea 9 October 1788 prior to mutiny
 * }
 * }

Crew members' biographical information may be found on the Bounty's Crew Encyclopedia page at the Pitcairn Islands Study Centre (PISC).

Discovery of the wreck
Luis Marden discovered the remains of the Bounty in January 1957. After spotting a rudder from this ship in a museum on Fiji, he persuaded his editors and writers to let him dive off Pitcairn Island, where the rudder had been found. Despite the warnings of one islander — "Man, you gwen be dead as a hatchet!" — Marden dived for several days in the dangerous swells near the island, and found the remains of the fabled ship. He subsequently met with Marlon Brando to counsel him on his role as Fletcher Christian in the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. Later in life, Marden wore cuff links made of nails from the Bounty.

Recreation of the voyage
In April 2010, 221 years after the original voyage, a crew recreating Captain William Bligh's epic voyage after the mutiny on the Bounty was set adrift in Tongan waters. The expedition eschewed the use of modern technology including compasses and toilet paper, and only took the same provisions as were aboard the original ship. The expedition lasted 48 days – one day longer than the original voyage – and was led by Australian adventurer Don McIntyre on board the sailing ship the Talisker Bounty.

The Bounty on postage stamps

 * Pitcairn Island's first postage stamps were issued on 15 October 1940 with a portrait of the ship entitled "H.M. Armed Vessel Bounty" on the 6d stamp.
 * The third definitive issue of 1964 depicted "H.M. Armed Vessel Bounty" on the 1d denomination, changed to 1 cent in 1967.
 * In 1976, Bounty was shown as "H.M.S. Bounty" on the 10c stamp.
 * Bicentenary Sheetlets and first day covers were issued in 1990 depicting Bounty as "HMAV Bounty".
 * In 2004, a set of stamps and first day covers were issued to celebrate "HMAV Bounty", the 1979 replica then based in Sydney.
 * In 2007, a set of stamps and first day covers were issued to celebrate "HMS Bounty", the 1962 USA-based replica.

In popular culture


The story of the mutiny has been adapted numerous times to the page, the screen, and the stage.

Although William Bligh has frequently been portrayed as a middle-aged man in stage and screen productions about the Bounty, he was thirty-four years old at the time of the mutiny, having been born in 1754. This may be accurate as far as his appearance went, however, since people aged more quickly at the time.


 * Mary Russell Mitford wrote her poem "Christina, the Maid of the South Seas" in 1811, following the 1810 publication of Captain Mayhew Folger's rediscovery of Pitcairn.
 * Pitcairn's Island: A New Melo Dramatic Ballet of Action, opened in Drury Lane in April 1816, following publication in the Naval Chronicle of an account of the 1814 visit to Pitcairn of Captain Sir Thomas Staines, of the Briton, and Captain Philip Pipon, of the Tagus.
 * Lord Byron published his poem The Island in 1823.
 * Sir John Barrow's book, The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. Bounty: Its Cause and Consequences (1831), ensured the enduring fame of the Bounty and her people.
 * Mark Twain describes the mutiny as background to his story "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" (1879).
 * The Mutineers of the Bounty (original title Les révoltés de la Bounty, 1879) by Jules Verne, based on a work by Gabriel Marcel.
 * R. M. Ballantyne wrote a novel about the mutineers on the Bounty called The Lonely Island (1880).
 * A first movie (The Mutiny of the Bounty, 1916) was made in Australia.
 * A trilogy of novels, (Mutiny on the 'Bounty' (1932), Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn's Island) by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (also published in one volume as The Bounty Trilogy), as well as the movies and television shows based on them, relate fictionalized versions of the mutiny.
 * The second film version was the Australian film In the Wake of the Bounty (1933), starring Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian.
 * The next movie was Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), which won the Oscar for Best Picture that year. It starred Charles Laughton as Bligh and Clark Gable as Christian.
 * Another film version of the Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) stars Trevor Howard as Bligh and Marlon Brando as Christian. The 1962 motion picture is generally considered the least historically accurate, with such changes or errors as Christian and Bligh's meeting (and subsequently hating) each other at the first sailing of the Bounty, the mutiny's occurring in the middle of the day sparked by Bligh's order to let a sailor die of ingested saltwater poisoning rather than be given water set aside for the breadfruits, and Fletcher Christian's dying from injuries sustained in the fire aboard Bounty while trying to save the ship.
 * Bengt Danielsson, a Kon-Tiki crew member, wrote What Happened on the Bounty in 1962.
 * A fifth film, The Bounty (1984), stars Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian. This film is generally considered the most historically accurate with some of the scenes reenacted directly from William Bligh's own log.
 * Queensland Museum marine archaeology curator Peter Gesner wrote Pandora, an archaeological perspective in 1991 (Qld. Museum Press, Brisbane). A revised and updated edition was published by the Qld. Museum in 2000.
 * BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation of the Nordhoff-Hall novel in three parts by Bert Coules in 1996, starring Oliver Reed as William Bligh, Roger Daltrey as Fletcher Christian, Lionel Jeffries, and Linus Roach.
 * Australian author Peter Corris wrote a novel called The Journal of Fletcher Christian in 2005.
 * The Wettest Stories Ever Told, a 2006 episode of the animated series The Simpsons, features a story based on the mutiny on the Bounty.
 * Val McDermid explores the fate of Fletcher Christian in her novel The Grave Tattoo (2007).
 * Rasputina wrote the double album Oh Perilous World in 2007 as faux 1930s musical theater about Pitcairnian mutineer life, with thinly veiled, anti-neoconservative allegory.
 * John Boyne wrote a novel called Mutiny: A Novel of the Bounty, published in 2008, about the voyage of the Bounty and the mutiny from the perspective of Captain Bligh's young personal valet, John Jacob Turnstile.