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

by Caroline Alexander

  Adams’s letter to his brother, with information about his brother’s employment, was published in the European Magazine, September 1819, pp. 210-11.

  The visit in 1825 of the Blossom, Captain Beechey, is amply documented. The speculation that Fletcher Christian might be found on Pitcairn was made by Lieutenant George Peard, “Journal Kept on HMS Blossom, Captain Beechey in 1825,” BL Add. MS 35141. Beechey’s manuscript draft of Adams’s account, “John Adams, Narrative, 1825,” is found in ML, A1804; for Beechey’s published account, see F. W. Beechey, Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering’s Strait, to co-operate with the Polar Expeditions, performed in His Majesty’s Ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey (London, 1831). See also James Wolf, “Journal of a voyage on board the HMS Blossom” (WA MS 533), in the Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; this log emphasizes Stewart’s role in the mutiny. Finally, the inexplicably unexamined account of Lieutenant Belcher, “Private Journal and remarks etc. H.M. Ship Blossom on discovery during the years 1825, 6, 7 Captn. F. W. Beechey Commander, by Edward Belcher, Supy. Lieut. & Assistant Surveyor,” is found in ATL, MS-0158. A review of Beechey’s book with substantial commentary and quotation is [W. H. Smyth], “Capt. Beechey’s Narrative,” United Service Journal (1831), part 1, pp. 527-31.

  Adams’s quote about Christian’s “joyful expression” on returning to the Bounty after scouting Pitcairn is found in J. A. Moerenhout, Voyages aux Îles du Grand Océan (Paris, 1837), translated by Arthur R. Borden, as Travels to the Islands of the Pacific Ocean (Lanham, Md., 1993).

  The remains of the Bounty were excavated in the 1950s; see Luis Marden, “I Found the Bones of the Bounty,” National Geographic Magazine, December 1957, pp. 725-89.

  Jenny’s narratives were published in the Sydney Gazette, July 17, 1819, and more expansively as “Pitcairn’s Island—The Bounty’s Crew,” United Service Journal (1829), part 1, pp. 589-93. This latter is a handier version of the same originally published in the Bengal Hurkaru, October 2, 1826. The Tahitian women who were brought to Pitcairn are listed with sources for information about them in Alan S. C. Ross and A. W. Moverley, The Pitcairnese Language (New York, 1964), p. 52. See also Sven Wahlroos, Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas: A Companion to the Bounty Adventure (Topsfield, Mass., 1989), for entries under each woman’s name.

  The very plausible theory that Adams was responsible for Fletcher Christian’s death is aired at length by Glynn Christian, who traces the rumor of Adams’s role back to an early work of fiction, whose author had spent significant time on Pitcairn and claimed to have heard this from the islanders. See Glynn Christian, Fragile Paradise, rev. ed. (Sydney and New York, 1999), pp. 340 ff.

  Adams gave his birth date to Captain O. Folger of the Maryland, 1821-1824; see the log of the Maryland, Kendall Whaling Museum, Sharon, Massachusetts, Log 0673.

  Adams’s “cruel treatment” of his wife is reported in a letter from Rosalind Young to Captain and Mrs. Gibbon, April 1882, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, MS E33.

  For other ships that visited Pitcairn, see the following:

  The Elizabeth, Captain Henry King, arrived in 1819; see “Extract from the Journal of Captain Henry King of the Elizabeth,” Edinburgh Philosophical Journal 3, no. 6 (October 1820), pp. 380-88.

  The Surry, Captain Raines, left several accounts of its 1821 visit—one clear-eyed report found Adams disappointingly a little cool on being disturbed by his unexpected visitor; it was also Captain Raines’s company who found the island’s young men cheerfully swigging their home-distilled spirits (“Journal on the ship, Surry, 1820-1821,” ML, A131; and also “Various documents and notes re the Ship Surry,” ML As 125/1-5). Readers of Nathaniel Philbrook’s In the Heart of the Sea (New York, 2000) will recognize the Surry as the ship that rescued survivors of the Essex from nearby Henderson Island.

  The account of the Russell, Captain Frederick Arthur, which stopped at Pitcairn in 1822, is found in an undated news article in the Nantucket Historical Association Research Library, Edouard A. Stackpole Collection, Folder 947, Whaling—Captains “A.”

  Otto von Kotzebue and Johann Friedrich Eschsholtz, A New Voyage Round the World, in the years 1823, 24, 25, and 26 (London, 1830), pp. 225 ff., reports that he was told that Bligh had subjected “even his mate, Christian Fletcher, to corporal chastisement” (p. 229). Kotzebue makes reference to two other unrecorded visits to the island, by an English captain in 1803, and the American Eagle in 1821. Similarly, the log of the Cherub, Adm. 51/2206, gives an account of passing the island in August 1814, before the arrival of the Briton and Tagus.

  Adams’s “dying words” are reported in the American Seaman’s Friend Society, The Sailors’ Magazine, containing the life of Peter Heywood, Midshipman of the Bounty; Also a sketch of the principal Mutineers of the Bounty (New York, n.d. [c. 1860s]).

  The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 3 (1833), pp. 156-69, reports visits of the Seringapatam (1830), the Comet (1831), and the Challenger (1833). The account of the first gives the unflattering description of the abilities of Fletcher Christian’s sons.

  The report that Bligh called Christian a “hungry hound” is from Walter Brodie, Pitcairns Island, and the Islanders, in 1850 (London, 1851), pp. 50 ff.

  Frederick Debell Bennett, Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe, from the Year 1833 to 1836 (London, 1840), recounts his voyage as a passenger in the Tuscan, by which time one has come to the post-Adams era.

  The Reverend Thomas Boyles Murray, Pitcairn: The Island, the People and the Pastor; With a Short Account of the Mutiny of the Bounty (London, 1853), went through many editions.

  Sir Charles Lucas, ed., The Pitcairn Island Register Book (London, 1929), is a transcription of the official island records.

  Rosalind Amelia Young, Mutiny of the Bounty and the story of Pitcairn Island, 1790-1894 (Oakland, Calif., 1894), is the story of life on the island; Young was a great-granddaughter of John Adams.

  The descendants of the mutineers live on Pitcairn to this day. For an account of these people in modern times, see H. L. Shapiro, Descendants of the Mutineers of the Bounty (Honolulu, 1929), and his The Heritage of the Bounty: The Story of Pitcairn Through Six Generations (New York, 1936); David Silverman, Pitcairn Island (Cleveland, 1967); and H. E. Maude, Of Islands and Men (Melbourne, 1968). For a darker view of life on the island, see Dea Birkett, Serpent in Paradise (New York, 1997).

  Evidence of Charles Norman’s death, on December 16, 1793, is found in the burial records of Holy Trinity Church, Gosport, kindly provided by the Portsmouth City Council, Museum and Records Office.

  John Hallett’s will is found in PROB 11/1254, 21; his service on the Penelope is confirmed by Adm. 35/1253 and by the ship’s muster, Adm. 36/11981. His obituaries appear in the Times (London), December 6, 1794, and in Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1794, p. 1157. His burial is listed in the parish burial registry for 1794, of St. Mary’s, Bedford; this record and a description of his “Mural Monument” (Doc. Reference X69/52.) were kindly provided by the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Office, Bedford.

  The tradition of Hallett’s “confession” was first raised by Sir John Barrow, The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of HMS Bounty: its Causes and Consequences (London, 1831), p. 202, note; this was then elaborated on by Lady Diana Belcher, The Mutineers of the Bounty and their Descendants in Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands (London, 1870), p. 147, where she has upgraded the informant from “first lieutenant” to “captain” of the Penelope. The identity of the first lieutenant is found in the muster of the Penelope, above; John Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, vol. 1, part 2 (London, 1823), pp. 582-83, reveals that Malcolm was the maternal nephew of Sir Thomas Pasley. Pulteney had formerly served as a young gentleman under his uncle Pasley, at the age of twelve. Pasley’s opinion of this time of his young nephew, whom he refers to as “an idle little vagabon,” is amusingly described in his
journal: Rodney M.S. Pasley, ed., Private Sea Journals. Another erroneous tradition arose independently that Hallett had joined Bligh on the Providence.

  The log of the Jason, Adm. 51/1164, shows “Lawrence Lebogue Sailmaker, departed this life” on June 3, 1795; Adm. 102/604, “Hospital muster books, Plymouth, 1795,” indicates that he was “Received on shore” on June 5 as a “Corpse.” Edward Christian’s remark regarding Lebogue’s testimony is found in his Short Reply to Capt. William Bligh’s Answer (London, 1795), p. 7. Lebogue’s remarks about the boat journey were described by the Reverend James Bligh; see his “Papers, 1790-1792, 1834,” ML, vol. Z C695.

  Thomas Hayward’s service on the Diomede is confirmed by Adm. 36/14096, the ship’s muster; the travails of the Diomede are reported by her captain in Adm. 1/168, pp. 66-71. The loss of the Swift under Hayward’s command is recorded in Sir William Laird Clowes and Sir Clements Robert Markham, The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present (London, 1897-1903), p. 549, under “British Losses, 1793-1802.” See also “Papers Relating to Captain Broughton of the Sloop Providence 1792-1799 (A/A/20.5/O63B), British Columbia Archives, letter of 12 June 1799 from Broughton to Evan Nepean. Information about Hayward’s surveys was kindly provided by A. C. F. David, the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. The blank logbook given to Hayward by his father was described in Bennett, Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, p. 47.

  George Simpson’s death is recorded in Adm. 35/1323 and Adm. 44/S2, Seaman’s Effects.

  William Muspratt’s will is found in PROB 11/1301. For his transfer to the Royal William, see the muster of the Hector, Adm. 36/11187. The muster of the Bellerophon is Adm. 36/ 11904. The report from the solicitor general and council for the Admiralty to Secretary Stephens regarding Muspratt’s back wages is found in Adm. 106/2217.

  A remarkable exercise in collective family memory is described in James Shaw Grant, Morrison of the Bounty (Stornoway, Scotland, 1997), a biography about his forebear that was inspired by the memory of his aunt Jessie, “an elderly and timid spinster,” informing him that Morrison “was a relative of ours” (after seeing the Charles Laughton film, she had reported that “the family resemblance was unmistakable”). Aunt Jessie had received this information from “Maggie the captain’s daughter,” who was the granddaughter of Lillias Morison, who lived to be a hundred and was a “cousin” of James Morrison. Thus, as Grant points out, there was only one link between his informant, Aunt Jessie, and “a woman who was in her twenties when the mutiny took place.”

  HOME IS THE SAILOR

  For Bligh’s life on his return to naval service after the Providence voyage, see George Mackaness, The Life of Vice-Admiral William Bligh, R.N., F.R.S., rev. ed. (Sydney, 1951).

  The story of the Nore mutiny, and of Aaron Graham’s role as Admiralty agent, is color-fully told in James Dugan, The Great Mutiny (New York, 1965).

  For Bligh’s role in the battle of Camperdown, see Rear-Admiral A. H. Taylor, “William Bligh at Camperdown,” Mariner’s Mirror 23, no. 4 (October 1937), pp. 417-33. For the battle of Copenhagen, see Dudley Pope, The Great Gamble (London, 2001).

  Bligh’s arrest on suspicion of being a spy is told in the Reverend R. Polwhele, Traditions and Recollections; Domestic, Clerical, and Literary (London, 1826), pp. 376 ff.

  An early attempt by Banks to get a shore commission for Bligh is found in his letter to Spencer, George John, 2nd Earl, December 10, 1795 (58.02), in SLNSW: the Sir Joseph Banks Electronic Archive. Bligh’s remarks about his wife’s inability to go to sea are in a letter to Banks of March 21, 1805 (58.29).

  Banks’s letter to Bligh broaching the governorship of New South Wales is quoted in Mackaness, The Life of Vice-Admiral William Bligh, pp. 352f.; the letter itself cannot now be located.

  The Warrior court-martial is found in Adm. 1/5367 and Adm. 1/5368. The case of the Warrior court-martial was first discovered and examined by Mackaness, The Life of Vice-Admiral William Bligh, pp. 333-51. This excellent and balanced overview quotes at length from the trial transcript. His quote about Bligh’s bemused judges “grinning broadly” is on p. 336. For the Rum Corps, see, for example, Herbert Vere Evatt, Rum Rebellion: A Study of the Overthrow of Governor Bligh by John Macarthur and the New South Wales Corps (Sydney, 1939).

  For the court-martial held on the deposers of Governor Bligh, see George Johnston and J. Bartrum, Proceedings of a General Court-Martial Held at Chelsea Hospital, Which commenced on Tuesday, May 7, 1811, and continued by Adjournment to Wednesday, 5th of June following, for The trial of Lieut.-Col. Geo. Johnston, Major of the 102d Regiment, late [of] the New South Wales Corps, on A Charge of Mutiny . . . Exhibited Against Him By the Crown, For Deposing On the 26th of January, 1808, William Bligh, Esq. F.R.S. (London, 1811). The report that plans against Bligh had been well laid was made by Greville, Hon. Charles Francis, to Banks, September 20, 1808, DTC 17.212-13. Many years after the fact, Bligh’s legal counsel confided that the court-martial “trial was nominally of John Sar—really of Admiral Bligh.” Pollach, Sir Jonathan Frederick, A.L.S. to Rev. T. B. Murray, 22 September 1860, Dixon Library Document 72.

  The fulsome obituary of Elizabeth Bligh was published in Gentleman’s Magazine, May 1812, pp. 486-87.

  Material relating to John Fryer’s later years is found in the National Library of Australia, and is quoted with the library’s kind permission; see the “Statement of service of John Fryer, recorded by one of his children,” NLA MS 6592. Adm. 1/4585 contains Fryer’s petition to the Admiralty, while Adm. 1/4593 contains his daughter’s petition to the same. “The Naval Service of John Fryer, Master in His Majesty’s Navy 1781-1817,” compiled by Owen Rutter in 1932, quotes both letters of commendation and the surgeon’s report made on Fryer when he was forced from ill health to retire his command. Rutter’s useful fact sheet is found in the Mitchell Library, as a preface to John Fryer’s “Narrative, letter to his wife and documents. 4 April 1789-16 July 1804,” ML, Safe 1/38; this also includes information about Fryer’s son, Harrison. An article in the Eastern Daily Press (Norfolk), October 13, 2000, pp. 30-31, describes the exciting discovery of Fryer’s tombstone by Mike Welland, Tom Sands, and Allan Leventhall in the graveyard of St. Nicholas Church, Wells. Information about John Fryer’s cottage and other property was kindly supplied by Mike Welland. Details of John Fryer’s will are found in Owen Rutter, ed., The Voyage of the Bounty’s Launch as Related in William Bligh’s Despatch to the Admiralty and the Journal of John Fryer (London, 1934).

  Robert Tinkler’s obituary appeared in Gentleman’s Magazine, September 1820, p. 282. The remarks attributed to Tinkler are found in George Borrow, The Romany Rye; A sequel to “Lavengro,” vol. 2 (London, 1857), pp. 331-32.

  Joseph Coleman’s hospital records are found in Adm. 73/38, which shows him being discharged from Greenwich in May 1795. Coleman’s service on the Calcutta is confirmed by Adm. 35/298; Adm. 142/3, “Register of Seamen’s Wills,” shows his will was drawn on the Calcutta, while Adm. 48/15 shows it was witnessed by William Bligh. Adm. 35/524 indicates that he was discharged to the Yarmouth Hospital Ship in November 1796, although his name does not appear in the Yarmouth muster.

  Bligh’s last interaction with Michael Byrn is glimpsed in his correspondence with his half nephew, Francis Bond, preserved in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (BND/1), and published in 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). Adm. 102/606 and 102/608 show Byrn in and out of the Edgar with a fractured knee, until he is eventually discharged in January 1797 with “Consumption.”

  Mention is made by Bligh of a John Smith in a letter to his wife of January 27, 1800 (cited with the kind permission of the Kerpels Museum, Santa Barbara).

  Captain Edwards’s retirement activities are described in Robert Langdon, “Ancient Cornish Inn Is Link with the Bounty,” Pacific Island
s Monthly (April 1961), pp. 75-76.

  Several important biographies relate Peter Heywood’s later life and career: John Marshall, “Peter Heywood, Esq.,” Royal Naval Biography, vol. 2, part 2 (London, 1825), pp. 747- 97; E. Tagart, A Memoir of the Late Captain Peter Heywood, R.N., with Extracts from his Diaries and Correspondence (London, 1832); and A. G. K. L’Estrange, Lady Belcher and Friends (London, 1891); the latter describes the relationship of Peter’s wife to Aaron Graham, and attributes Peter’s fondness for Edward Belcher to their shared interests. Heywood’s hydrographic career is discussed in Andrew David, “From Mutineer to Hydrographer: The Surveying Career of Peter Heywood,” International Hydrographic Review 3, no. 2 (New Series) (August 2002), pp. 6-11; and also by A. C. F. David, “Peter Heywood and Northwest Australia,” The Great Circle: Journal of the Australian Association of Maritime History 1, no. 1 (April 1979), pp. 4-14, both kindly supplied by the author. From the latter one learns that Heywood carried a chart of these waters drawn by his former shipmate Thomas Hayward.

  Nessy Heywood’s fate is described first by Nessy’s mother, quoted in Tagart (above), p. 160, and embellished by Sir John Barrow, The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of HMS Bounty; its Causes and Consequences (London, 1831), pp. 210 ff.; and again by Lady Diana Belcher, The Mutineers of the Bounty and their Descendants in Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands (London, 1870), p. 141.

  Peter Heywood’s letter to Captain Jeff Raigersfield of November 24, 1808, about Nessy’s poems, is found in MNHL MS Heywood Papers, 09519; the flight of James Heywood from the Isle of Man is attested to in MNHL MS AP x5(2nd)-18ADM; both are used with the kind permission of the Manx National Heritage. Adm. 106/1353 is the petition of James Heywood written to the Admiralty from prison for an advance of wages; Adm. 36/11467, the muster of the Caesar, Captain Nugent, confirms details in the petition.