The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

by Caroline Alexander

  The rise of civil suits against merchant captains who had taken punitive action while at sea became a matter of concern, as is evident by a memorial drawn up on January 9, 1788, by “Sundry Commanders in the Service of the Honourable the United East India Company” (E/1/82, f. 14). In this document, it is complained that “your Memorialists having at present no legal authority to quell Mutiny and punish Delinquents on board the Ships under their command are exposed to great difficulties and dangers.” The petition, which was drawn up in the Jerusalem Coffee House, was signed by forty-seven memorialists, including Captains John Rogers and John Wordsworth, a relative of the poet. As a footnote to the Middlesex saga, it is pleasing to observe that Seaman John William Grece went on to make “a fortune” as an underwriter at Lloyd’s.

  VOYAGE OUT

  Information regarding the Bounty’s voyage to Tahiti, the twenty-three-week sojourn in Tahiti, and commencement of the return voyage, as reported by William Bligh, is taken from Bligh’s log: his first draft, or personal log, is preserved in ML, “Log of the Proceedings of HMS Bounty,” December 4, 1787-October 22, 1788 (Safe 1/46), and April 5, 1789-March 13, 1790 (Safe 1/47); his official copy submitted to the Admiralty is now in the Public Record Office (Adm. 55/151). Unless otherwise indicated in the text, all quotations are taken from the official log. This has in turn been published in a limited edition: Owen Rutter, ed., The Log of the Bounty (London, 1937).

  Bligh names Fletcher Christian as the officer delegated to visit the governor in Tenerife in his Voyage to the South Sea . . . (London, 1792), p. 15.

  Bligh’s letters to Campbell are found in the Mitchell Library, “William Bligh Letters, 1782-1805,” ML, Safe 1/40 (see letters for January 9, February 17, and June 28, 1788).

  Bligh’s correspondence with Banks is found in SLNSW: the Sir Joseph Banks Electronic Archive; quoted here are letters of January 9, 1788 (42.20), June 20, 1788 (46.24), and June 28, 1788 (46.25).

  For Captain Cook’s management, see J. C. Beaglehole, The Life of Captain James Cook (Stanford, Calif., 1974); Cook’s punishment of men with dirty hands is referred to on p. 320.

  Matthew Quintal is named as the first man flogged in Bligh’s Voyage to the South Sea . . . , pp. 26 ff.

  Details of the attempted passage around the Horn not found in the log (such as the breaching of the whales) are taken from Peter Heywood’s letter published in the Cumberland Pacquet, November 26, 1788.

  The report that Bligh’s decision to make for the Cape was returned with three cheers is recorded by James Morrison, “Journal on HMS Bounty and at Tahiti, 1792,” ML, ZML Safe 1/ 42, p. 14. This is the source for Morrison’s and other remarks on the outward voyage.

  That the quarrel between Bligh and Christian began at the Cape is found in John Adams, “Narrative, 1825,” ML, MS A1804. Bligh confirms his loan of money to Christian in “Attestation Mr. Wm. Bligh Plaintiff,” ML, Safe 1/43, p. 21.

  The description of festivities at the Cape is found in the Diary of L. Macquarie, entries for June 13 and 18, 1788 (ML, Lachlan Macquarie Papers, 1787-1824; A768/2). Macquarie—like William Bligh—would later be appointed governor of New South Wales.

  The excerpts from Thomas Denman Ledward’s letters are found in Arthur Denman, ed., “Captain Bligh and the Mutiny of the Bounty,” Notes and Queries 9th ser., 12 (December 26, 1903), pp. 501-2.

  The proposed newspaper article is found in SLNSW: the Sir Joseph Banks Electronic Archive, Series 46.26. The authorship of this article is a vexed issue. The article was sent to Joseph Banks with a note indicating that “[t]he above is transcribed from a Letter from the Master at Arms of the Bounty armed Ship to the Revd. J. Hampson Tunbridge Wells.” A note in another hand at the top of the manuscript, however, states that the article was sent from “the Armorer to Mr. Hamson.” Charles Churchill was the master-at-arms; Joseph Coleman, the armorer.

  Despite resistance to the belief that the future mutineer was the author of this elegant memoir, evidence strongly supports the authorship of Churchill. First, the note to Banks ascribing the article to the master-at-arms was sent shortly after receipt of the article (“It came by the French Packet to Havre & here by last Friday’s Post”), and apparently by Hampson himself or someone close enough to Hampson to have access to the text.

  By contrast, the note ascribing the article to Coleman contains no reliable details and could have been added at any later date; it also misspells Hampson’s name. More to the point, later evidence indicates that Coleman was illiterate.

  A credible basis for a relationship between Hampson and Churchill can be established: Poll and rate books indicate that John Hampson, cleric, was a nonconformist minister occupying a school in Tunbridge, Kent, from 1791 on. In January 1795, his obituary appears in Gentleman’s Magazine, p. 85: “1795 January 6 died in his 63d year, the Rev. Mr. Hampson, of Southborough in Kent, master of the free school in Southborough, pastor of a congregation of Protestant Dissenters at Tunbridge Wells, and father of the Rev. Hampson of Sunderland.”

  The Alumni Oxoniensis and Cantabrigensis states that John Hampson of Sunderland was in turn the son of “John Hampson of Manchester, Lancashire.” The Bounty muster indicates Manchester as being the place of origin of Charles Churchill; it is possible, then, that Hampson was known to the master-at-arms before he moved to the dissenting school in Kent. Later circumstances suggest that Churchill was indeed literate—perhaps Hampson had been his teacher? The article does not, in any case, appear to have been published.

  Details about Bligh’s collision with William Purcell are found in Adm. 1/5328.

  Fletcher Christian’s physical prowess is described in A. G. K. L’Estrange, Lady Belcher and Friends (London, 1891); Christian’s ease with the lower deck is described in Edward Christian’s “Appendix” to Stephen Barney’s Minutes of the Proceedings . . . (London, 1794), p. 28.

  Regarding falsification of a ship’s books, Article XXXI reads: “Every Officer or other Person in the Fleet, who shall knowingly make or sign a false Muster or Muster-book, or who shall command, counsel, or procure the making or signing thereof, or who shall aid or abet any other Person in the making or signing thereof, shall, upon Proof of any such Offence being made before a Court-martial, be cashiered, and rendered incapable of further Employment in his Majesty’s Naval Service.” Bligh’s command that Fryer sign or explain his reasons for refusing is found in “Attestation Mr. Wm. Bligh Plaintiff,” ML, Safe 1/43, p. 48.

  TAHITI

  As there was no fixed orthodoxy at this time, Bligh’s spelling of all Tahitian personal names is used. A succinct and accessible account of the bewildering name changes of the Tahitian chiefs is found in Sven Wahlroos’s “encyclopedia” of the Bounty, Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas: A Companion to the Bounty Adventure (Topsfield, Mass., 1989); see entries under each name.

  Bligh’s rules of conduct while at Tahiti are given in his An Answer to Certain Assertions . . . (London, 1794), p. 4.

  Cook’s description of his disrupted trade market is given in J. C. Beaglehole, ed., The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1961), p. 369.

  The record of men treated for “venereals” is found in the Bounty’s muster, Adm. 36/ 10744.

  Morrison’s account of Bligh’s interference in the ship’s trade is given in James Morrison, “Journal on HMS Bounty and at Tahiti, 1792,” ML, Safe 1/42, pp. 25ff. Morrison’s report of Christian’s denial of knowledge of the desertion is at p. 371, Bligh’s rebuke of his shore officers at p. 39.

  The apprehension of Cook’s deserter is discussed by J. C. Beaglehole, The Life of Captain James Cook (Stanford, Calif., 1974), pp. 565 ff. The tale of near mutiny on the Endeavour is related in a letter from James Maria Matra to Joseph Banks, May 7, 1790, BL Add. MS 33979.29-30. Matra (born Magra) was from New York but later served as British consul in Tangier, and had his own problematic and colorful history on the Endeavour. The captain’s clerk, having gone to bed drunk one night, some “Malicious person or pers
ons in the Ship took the advantage of his being drunk and cut off all the cloaths off from his back, not being satisfied with this they some time after went into his Cabbin and cut off part of both his Ears.” The “Malicious person” was thought to have been Mr. Midshipman Matra, who was known to have cut off the victim’s clothes before in “drunken frolicks” and had been heard to say “that if it was not for the Law he would Murder him” (Beaglehole, The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, vol. 1, pp. 234 ff.). Although later officially acquitted of the charges, Matra never wholly shook off all suspicion.

  The assertion that others intended to desert the Bounty at Tahiti is found in the “Affidavit of Joseph Coleman,” Dixson Library, SLNSW MS Q163, p. 29.

  Bligh’s contention that Christian and Heywood’s names were on Churchill’s list is found in his letter to Francis Bond, July 26, 1794; see George Mackaness, ed., Fresh Light on Bligh: Being Some Unpublished Correspondence of Captain William Bligh, R.N., and Lieutenant Francis Godolphin Bond, R.N., with Lieutenant Bond’s Manuscript Notes Made on the Voyage of HMS Providence, 1791-1795 (Sydney, 1953), pp. 56-57. The original correspondence is in the NMM (BND/1).

  Bligh’s index to the missing portion of his personal log, is in ML, Safe 1/46a.

  Article XVI applies to desertion, Article XXVII to sleeping on watch; see N. A. M. Rodger, Articles of War: The Statutes which Governed our Fighting Navies, 1661, 1749, and 1886 (Homewell, Hampshire, 1982), pp. 25 and 27, respectively. Courts-martial held, for example, on deserters during the same period as the trial of the Bounty mutineers in the latter part of 1792 give evidence of harsh sentencing; see, for example, Adm. 1/5330.

  Banks’s letter to David Nelson, written some time in 1787, is found in DTC 5.217-225. It is gratifying to note that the Tahitians received at least one great benefit from their otherwise destructive commerce with Europeans: namely, the introduction of the indispensable cat, which, as Bligh noted, kept both ship and island remarkably free of rats. The first cats arrived with Captain Wallis, the “discoverer” of Tahiti, on the Dolphin in 1767. Wallis noted in his log, “I gave them a Cat big with Kittens of which they were very fond—and Surprized to see her attack the Rats so eagerly” (“Log of Captain Samuel Wallis on the Dolphin During His Voyage Round the World, 1766-1768” [ML, Safe 1/98]). The Tahitians’ affection for cats is made evident by a number of incidents recorded by Bligh: On November 25, 1788, Banks’s old friend Oberea visited the Bounty by canoe: “I now got her below with her Attendants and a favorite Cat that she had bred from one that was given her by Captn. Cook,” Bligh recorded.

  The value of cats was also acknowledged by His Majesty’s Navy, as is evident from a court-martial held off New York on December 16, 1776, on two officers of the armed schooner St. Lawrence. Court-martial records indicate that a Mr. Thomas Page Christian, Acting Surgeon, “put a dog into the Steerage to drive out a cat belonging to Lieut. John Graves, Commander of the said Schooner.” When the dog wantonly killed the cat, the lieutenant “went to the Surgeon, and some high words passed between them. Soon after they went off in a boat ordered by the Lieutenant, and within half an hour returned, the Lieutenant being wounded in the left arm.” The court found that Lieutenant Graves, the owner of the cat, had “acted unbecoming an officer” and was to be dismissed from command of the St. Lawrence; but that Mr. Thomas Christian was to be “mulcted one twelve month’s pay” and “to be dismissed from His Majesty’s Naval Service, and rendered incapable of serving in it in any capacity” (Adm. 1/5307); sic semper tyrannis!

  MUTINY

  Lebogue’s statement about events after passing Whytootackee is found in William Bligh, An Answer to Certain Assertions . . . (London, 1794), p. 25.

  Bligh’s denial of frequent quarrels is found in “Attestation Mr. Wm. Bligh Plaintiff,” ML, Safe 1/43, p. 28.

  Quotations from Morrison’s account of events preceding the mutiny are found in James Morrison, “Journal on HMS Bounty and at Tahiti, 1792,” ML, ZML Safe 1/42, pp. 42 ff.

  John Fryer’s recollection of events before the mutiny is found in his unpublished narrative in the Mitchell Library: John Fryer, “Narrative, letter to his wife and documents. 4 April 1789-16 July 1804,” ML, Safe 1/38, p. 1ff. His quote of David Nelson appears on p. 19; Hayward’s acceptance of Bligh’s invitation to dine is on p. 16.

  For the sojourn of Cook and Bligh at Tonga in 1777, see J. C. Beaglehole, The Life of Captain James Cook (Stanford, Calif., 1974), pp. 531 ff. The flogging of the chief is described in J. C. Beaglehole, ed., The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1967), entry for May 8, 1777, p. 101. John Rickman describes the flogging and cutting of thieves: “During our stay here, more capital thefts were committed, and more Indians punished than in all the friendly islands besides; one was punished with 72 lashes, for only stealing a knife, another with 36, for endeavouring to carry off two or three drinking glasses; three were punished with 36 lashes each, for heaving stones at the wooders; but what was still more cruel, a man for attempting to carry of an axe, was ordered to have his arm cut to the bone, which he bore without complaining” (John Rickman, Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, on Discovery [London, 1781], p. 121). The destruction of the canoes and houses is described in Cook’s Journals, vol. 3, October 8-10, 1777, pp. 229 ff. The account of the man punished by cutting off his ears is given by Rickman: “. . . [i]n this bleeding condition he was sent on shore” (p. 174).

  For the sinister drama leading to Cook’s death, see Gavin Kennedy, The Death of Captain Cook (London, 1978).

  Readers of Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny will recognize this coconut scene as the inspiration for the brilliant strawberry episode on the Caine. Edward Christian’s “Appendix” to Stephen Barney’s Minutes of the Proceedings . . . (London, 1794), pp. 63 ff., records the further details of the confrontation over the coconuts. It should be observed that the word “break,” as Christian used with Purcell, meant to disrate him.

  The words of Edward Lamb, Christian’s former shipmate, are found in Bligh’s An Answer to Certain Assertions . . . , pp. 30-31.

  Cook’s heivas and other displays of his “hasty temper” are discussed by Beaglehole, Life of James Cook, pp. 710 ff., who in turn quotes James Trevenen, then a midshipman on the third voyage: “Heiva the name of the dances of the Southern Islanders, which bore so great a resemblance to the violent motions and stampings on the Deck of Capt Cooke in the paroxysms of passion, into which he often threw himself upon the slightest occasion that they were universally known by the same name, & it was a common saying amongst both officers & people: ‘The old boy has been tipping a heiva to such or such a one.’ ”

  The lowly status of inferior officers is described in Edward Thompson, Sailor’s Letters, vol. 1 (London, 1767), pp. 141 ff.

  Bligh’s description of Christian’s excessive perspiration suggests that Christian suffered from a condition known as hyperhidrosis, which is discussed by Glynn Christian, Fragile Paradise, rev. ed. (Milsons Point, NSW, and Auckland, 1999), pp. 306 ff.

  Bligh’s pleas to Christian are recorded in Edward Christian, “Appendix,” p. 69. Other details of the day of mutiny are from Bligh’s log and his Voyage to the South Sea . . . (London, 1792).

  Christian’s surprise at the number of men voluntarily entering the launch is described in James Morrison’s “Journal on HMS Bounty and at Tahiti, 1792,” ML, ZML Safe 1/42, p. 61.

  RETURN

  Bligh’s feat was praised in English Chronicle or Universal Post, March 16-18, 1790. His forthcoming book was advertised in a number of papers—see, for example, Diary or Woodfall’s Register, May 29, 1790.

  Descriptions of the voyage of the Bounty’s launch are taken from Bligh’s A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board His Majesty’s Ship Bounty; and the Subsequent Voyage of Part of the Crew, in the Ship’s Boat, From Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch Settlement in the East Indies (London, 1790); and from Bligh’s logs. A book o
f signals that Thomas Hayward carried with him was used by Bligh as a notebook, from which in turn he kept his running log. A memorandum by Bligh at the back of the notebook explains his methodology: “This account was kept in my bosom as a common memorandum of our time & transposed into my fair Journal every day when the weather would admit with every material circumstance which passed.” The notebook is held by the National Library of Australia (William Bligh, “Notebook and List of Mutineers,” 1789, NLA MS 5393) and is published in facsimile: John Bach, ed., The Bligh Notebook (Sydney, 1987). The “fair Journal” is Bligh’s personal log, held by the Mitchell Library (William Bligh, “Log of the Proceedings of HMS Bounty,” April 5, 1789-March 13, 1790, ML, Safe 1/47). Bligh’s official copy submitted to the Admiralty is in the Public Record Office, Adm. 55/151. Except where noted, quotations are from the official log.

  The accuracy of Bligh’s log is indicated by some latter-day investigations at Tofua. In 1985, efforts were made by Marie-Thérèse and Bengt Danielsson, distinguished historians of the South Pacific, to locate the cave in which Bligh and his men had camped while on Tofua. The Danielssons found the cave on the island’s northwest corner, as described by Bligh, and also found that the cave’s dimensions (one hundred yards wide) and situation on the beach exactly accorded with Bligh’s account. More remarkably, the position Bligh had determined by sextant was tested by the captain of the ship that had brought the Danielssons to Tofua, and who with “infinitely more sophisticated navigational equipment at his disposal, arrived at exactly the same figure” (Marie-Thérèse and Bengt Danielsson, “Bligh’s Cave: 196 Years On,” Pacific Islands Monthly, June 1985, pp. 25-26).