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Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His Majesty’s Ship Bounty
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Historical SummaryHARSH was the traditional discipline of the quarter-deck. In the British navy as many as a thousand lashes were administered for insubordination, and sentences of from one hundred to two hundred lashes were in the more normal course of events. The tradition died hard. In Two Years before the Mast, a diary of his experiences at sea (1834–36), Richard Henry Dana reported the brutality of a sadistic captain who flogged and spread-eagled members of the crew who differed with him or even ventured to question him. " ’If you want to know what I flog you for, I’ll tell you,’ shouted the captain. ’It’s because I like to do it!’ " In addition to physical correction, docking the provisions of disobedient seamen, and threatening them with discharge, sea captains frequently drove their crews to the limit of endurance by bullying, profane threats, and the unsavory practice of hazing or "working up," which consisted of assigning dirty, disagreeable, and dangerous tasks to a particular seaman, too often as a means of settling a personal grudge. For the seaman submission was the only course. As Dana pointed out, "if they resist, it is mutiny; and if they succeed and take the vessel, it is piracy." Living under the tyranny of sea law, Dana vowed that "if God should ever give me the means, I would do something to redress the grievances and relieve the sufferings of that poor class of beings, of whom I then was one." Of all the bullying captains who sailed the seven seas none is so notorious as William Bligh. Of all the risings at sea against authority, from the time of Henry Hudson (whose tragic end on his fourth expedition has been attributed to mutineers, subsequently acquitted), none has been romanticized to anywhere near the same degree as the mutiny on the Bounty. Plymouth-born, Bligh was a protegé of the great Captain Cook, discoverer of Australia. From Cook he learned the arts of surveyor and hydrographer as well as how to control his seamen and the secrets of scientific feeding at sea. Entering the West Indies trade, Bligh came across a boy named Fletcher Christian who served under him as a seaman before the mast. Bligh tutored him in navigation, and, when, in 1787, he was given command of the Bounty on the expedition to Otaheite [Hawaii] to secure bread-fruit for Jamaica, he promoted Christian to master’s mate. Two years later Christian showed his gratitude by setting his erstwhile benefactor adrift in an overloaded ship’s launch and leaving him to make his way across 3,600 miles of uncharted ocean—a death sentence! Bligh’s escape was miraculous, one of the greatest epics of the sea, and a tribute to his all-round seamanship. He later fought with distinction in the Royal Navy, and after other stormy episodes, was finally gazetted a Rear-Admiral of the Blue. The evidence on the rising is conflicting. The first selection below comes from a journal now in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, Australia. Its author was James Morrison, convicted in the trial of the mutineers, but pardoned, and permitted to re-enter the naval service. As his account at certain points dovetails with Bligh’s own narrative, it is considered trustworthy despite its rancor against the captain. Although Bligh was charged with curtailing ship’s rations and starving his men, there was not a single case of scurvy aboard his ship. This was a remarkable record, and a tribute to Bligh’s empirical knowledge of antidotes for that disease long before mariners were versed in the properties of vitamin C. "I am in hell! I am in hell!" Those words of Fletcher Christian, recorded by Bligh in his own Narrative, published in 1790 (the second excerpt below), reveals how that gay, handsome, and sensitive lad was torn between honor and passion. At Tahiti, Christian had found the great love of his life. Learning that his mate was soon to have a child, whom possibly he would never see, he was reluctant to leave the island when the time came for the Bounty to sail. This time Ulysses did not escape Circe. Dissuaded by friends from abandoning ship on a raft, he enlisted the help of malcontents and seized the vessel. After the death of his native wife, who had followed him to Pitcairn Island, he was shot in the back by the husband of another Tahitian woman whom he had chosen to take her place. When the mutineers were brought to trial, Bligh, who had been sent on another bread-fruit expedition, probably to get him out of the way, was absent. Six were found guilty, of whom two were pardoned. Four were acquitted. The mutineers left behind them on Pitcairn Island an extraordinary brood of half-castes.
Key Quote"I am in hell! I am in hell!"
William Bligh
London
1790
Mutiny on the Bounty
[1789]
II
Tuesday the 28th: Just before sun-rising, while I was yet asleep, Mr. Christian, with the master at arms, gunner’s mate, and Thomas Burkitt, seaman, came into my cabin, and seizing me, tied my hands with a cord behind my back, threatening me with instant death, if I spoke or made the least noise. I, however, called as loud as I could, in hopes of assistance; but they had already secured the officers who were not of their party, by placing sentinels at their doors. There were three men at my cabin door, besides the four within. Christian had only a cutlass in his hand; the others had muskets and bayonets. I was hauled out of bed, and forced on deck in my shirt, suffering great pain from the tightness with which they had tied my hands.
I demanded the reason of such violence but received no other answer than abuse for not holding my tongue. The master, the gunner, the surgeon, Mr. Elphinstone, master’s mate, and Nelson, were kept confined below; and the fore hatchway was guarded by sentinels. The boatswain and carpenter, and also the clerk, Mr. Samuel, were allowed to come upon deck, where they saw me standing abaft the mizen-mast, with my hands tied behind my back, under a guard with Christian at their head. The boatswain was ordered to hoist the launch out, with a threat, if he did not do it instantly, to take care of himself.
When the boat was out, Mr. Hay-ward and Mr. Hallet, two of the midshipmen, and Mr. Samuel, were ordered into it. I demanded what their intention was in giving this order, and endeavored to persuade the people near me not to persist in such acts of violence; but it was to no effect.
"Hold your tongue, Sir, or you are dead this instant," was constantly repeated to me.
The master, by this time, had sent to request that he might come on deck, which was permitted; but he was soon ordered back again to his cabin.
I continued my endeavors to turn the tide of affairs, when Christian changed the cutlass which he had in his hand for a bayonet that was brought to him, and, holding me with a strong grip by the cord that tied my hands, he with many oaths threatened to kill me immediately, if I would not be quiet. The villains round me had their pieces cocked and bayonets fixed. Particular people were called on to go into the boat, and were hurried over the side; whence I concluded that with these people I was to be set adrift. I therefore made another effort to bring about a change, but with no other effect than to be threatened with having my brains blown out.
The boatswain and seamen, who were to go in the boat, were allowed to collect twine, canvas, lines, sails, cordage, an 8 and 20 gallon cask of water, and Mr. Samuel got 150 lb. of bread, with a small quantity of ram and wine, also a quadrant and compass; but he was forbidden, on pain of death, to touch either map, ephemeris (book of astronomical observations), sextant, time-keeper, or any of my surveys or drawings.
The mutineers having forced those of the seamen whom they meant to get rid of, into the boat, Christian directed a dram to be served to each of his own crew. I then unhappily saw that nothing could be done to effect the recovery of the ship. There was no one to assist me, and every endeavor on my part was answered with threats of death.
The officers were next called upon deck, and forced over the side into the boat, while I was kept apart from every one, abaft the mizen-mast; Christian, armed with a bayonet, holding me by the bandage that secured my hands. The guard round me had their pieces cocked, but on my daring the ungrateful wretches to fire, they uncocked them.
It is of no moment for me to recount my endeavors to bring back the offenders to a sense of their duty. All I could do was by speaking to them in general; but it was to no purpose, for I was kept securely bound, and no one except the guard suffered to come near me.
Much altercation took place among the mutinous crew during the whole business. Some swore "I’ll be damned if he does not find his way home, if he gets anything with him" meaning me): and, when the carpenter’s chest was carrying away, "Damn my eyes, he will have a vessel built in a month." While others laughed at the helpless situation of the boat, being very deep, and so little room for those who were in her. As for Christian, he seemed as if meditating destruction on himself and every one else.
I asked for arms, but they laughed at me, and said I was well acquainted with the people among whom I was going, and therefore did not want them. Four cutlasses, however, were thrown into the boat, after we were veered astern.
The officers and men being in the boat, they only waited for me, of which the master-at-arms informed Christian; who then said: "Come, Captain Bligh, your officers and men are now in the boat, and you must go with them. If you attempt to make the least resistance you will instantly be put to death"; and, without further ceremony, with a tribe of armed ruffians about me, I was forced over the side, where they untied my hands. Being in the boat, we were veered astern by a rope. A few pieces
of port were thrown to us, and some clothes, also the cutlasses I have already mentioned; and it was then that the armorer and carpenters called out to me to remember that they had no hand in the transaction. After having undergone a great deal of ridicule, and been kept some time to make sport for these unfeeling wretches, we were at length cast adrift in the open ocean.
Notwithstanding the roughness with which I was treated, the remembrance of past kindnesses produced some signs of remorse in Christian. When they were forcing me out of the ship, I asked him if this treatment was a proper return for the many instances he had received of my friendship? He appeared disturbed at my question, and answered with much emotion.
"That—Captain Bligh—that is the thing. I am in hell—I am in hell!"
Chicago: William Bligh, Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His Majesty’s Ship Bounty, ed. William Bligh in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed April 19, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=TM13S9FFSRQJVYY.
MLA: Bligh, William. Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His Majesty’s Ship Bounty, edited by William Bligh, in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, edited by Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 19 Apr. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=TM13S9FFSRQJVYY.
Harvard: Bligh, W, Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His Majesty’s Ship Bounty, ed. . cited in 1951, History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 19 April 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=TM13S9FFSRQJVYY.
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