Mutiny on the Bounty

by Peter Fitzsimons

  Things move fairly quickly, most particularly when it comes to finding the right man to command the ship on so unusual a voyage.

  Among Sir Joseph’s many powerful friends is the very well heeled and well-connected shipowner Duncan Campbell, who swears he has just the man for the voyage – my niece Elizabeth’s husband, he explains to Banks, a Navy man by the name of Lieutenant William Bligh.

  Ah, yes, Bligh. His time since the notoriously ill-fated voyage with the late, great Captain Cook has not been easy, but still successful. To his endless chagrin, he reflects often on how he was the only officer – did he mention? Well, let him tell you again anyway – who’d been on the Cook expedition not to be promoted when they arrived home. That notwithstanding, through subsequent voyages, aboard several ships, his undoubted brilliance had so shone through in so many tight spots – including the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1781, when he had been serving aboard HMS Belle Poule – he finally got his commission as a lieutenant. What’s more, his reputation as a navigator has become ever greater, just as his superb charts are highly prized by the Admiralty. When Bligh gives the longitude and latitude of a particular feature, it can be counted on. (To determine longitude, Bligh uses what amounts to his favourite instrument, his gleaming Kendall chronometer – an extraordinary invention and the first truly accurate timekeeper, just six inches wide with three dials on its face. Cook himself had referred to his own version as ‘our trusty watch’ and for good reason. The instrument allows them to measure distances travelled along certain courses with such unprecedented precision it has revolutionised navigation in the past decade, allowing seafarers, for the first time, to accurately and quickly measure longitude.) And yet, still the Admiralty has not given Bligh the rank he thought he deserved – Captain.

  It does not take Sir Joseph Banks long to be convinced Bligh was born for the position on the Bounty. Why, he had not only accompanied Captain Cook to Tahiti on Cook’s third voyage, gaining proficiency in the local language – but Cook himself had enthused over his abilities as both navigator and shipmaster.20

  Bligh will do fine, and Banks will see to it that he receives his commission for the task, with Bligh himself being told – unofficially, by Campbell – when he arrives back in England in early August.

  KEY

  1 Upper deck

  2 Lower deck

  3 Hold

  4 Fore platform

  5 Aft platform

  6 Bowsprit

  7 Knighthead

  8 Figurehead

  9 Head rails

  10 Cutwater

  11 Keel

  12 Frames

  13 Deadwood

  14 Stern post

  15 Inner stern post

  16 Rudder

  17 Cathead

  18 Half-pounder swivel

  19 Fore topsail sheet bitts

  20 Foremast

  21 Pawl bitt post

  22 Windlass

  23 Bell

  24 Fore pin rail

  25 Rail

  26 Boat chock

  27 Companionway

  28 Main hatch

  29 Fore brace bitts

  30 Mainmast

  31 Pump

  32 Main pin rail

  33 Capstan

  34 Mizzen topsail sheet bitts

  35 Poop pin rail

  36 Mizzen mast

  37 Steering wheel

  38 Tiller

  39 Flag locker

  40 Stern lantern

  41 Galley stove (starboard)

  42 Fore hatch

  43 Captain’s dining cabin

  44 Garden (great cabin)

  45 Rudder head housing

  46 Lobby

  47 Boatswain’s store room

  48 Boatswain’s store room

  49 Sail room

  50 Shot locker

  51 Hold well

  52 Spirit room

  53 Fish room

  54 Bread room

  55 Mast step

  56 Keelson

  57 Ceilings

  At last! His own command! And his chance – if he can satisfactorily complete the tasks set him, with his customary brilliance – to prove himself worthy of the rank of Captain.

  Immediately, Lieutenant Bligh writes to Sir Joseph:

  Sir

  I arrived yesterday from Jamaica … I have heard the flattering news of your great goodness to me, intending to honour me with the command of the vessel which you propose to go to the South Seas, for which, after offering you my most grateful thanks, I can only assure you I shall endeavour and I hope succeed in deserving such a trust. I wait your commands and am with the sincerest respect.

  Sir, Your much obliged and very humble servant,

  William Bligh.21

  It is the beginning of a long, close relationship. No matter that Sir Joseph is a wealthy aristocrat, while Bligh is of earthy roots, Banks respects the fact that for Bligh – as exemplified by his navigational brilliance – ‘close enough’ is not ‘good enough’, it has to be correct. No, Bligh is not a man of science, but at least he cares that facts be properly recorded. As for Bligh, to have a man of Sir Joseph’s influence pushing his cause is an enormous privilege and he is careful to nurture the relationship.

  On 14 August, the Bounty is declared ship-shape and ready for service, and two days later the Admiralty officially appoints Lieutenant William Bligh as Commander, and ‘orders the Navy Board to have her manned with a crew of forty-five and victualed for twelve months’.22

  Bligh can barely believe it. Just days ago he was returning from another mercantile voyage for his wife’s uncle, and now this – his first sole command of a Navy vessel.

  Seeking out Sir Joseph Banks, Bligh questions the great man closely as to the nature of the mission and soon has in his ‘possession a copy of the original plan of the voyage and the instructions intended for Governor Phillip’.23

  Yes, Bligh has certain misgivings about some of the arrangements already made by the powerful botanist but keeps them to himself. For he is, and he knows it, talking to none less than his promoter, patron, and defender. With Sir Joseph pushing his cause, there is no limit to the heights he might rise to in the Royal Navy. And for his part, Sir Joseph, just like Cook before him, recognises just what a brilliant seaman and navigator Bligh is and – although recognising he also has a short fuse and high temper – is convinced those positives easily outweigh all negatives.

  And now Bligh gets down to the task at hand.

  With the usual Captain’s quarters being taken over by plants, a small cabin just forward of the Great Cabin, on the starboard side, has been reserved for him to sleep in – at seven foot wide by six foot deep, and no more than five foot high, it is not big enough to swing a dead cat in, but will have to do. His ‘dining room’ will be not a ‘room’ at all, just a small section with four canvas walls near his sleeping quarters.

  Opposite Bligh’s quarters, on the larboard side across the companionway, is a similar cabin for Master John Fryer, essentially the Captain’s second-in-command, responsible for the running of the ship, and its security – the latter being the reason he is responsible for the Arms Chest, a sturdy wooden box weighing as much as two men and needing at least that many to lift it. It lies at the foot of the gangway outside the Midshipmen’s quarters, and holds no fewer than 40 muskets, a couple of dozen pistols, with assorted bayonets and cutlasses to further make the point if necessary.

  Now, although Mr Fryer should hold the only key to the chest, because he dislikes being woken in the wee hours for the key, because a shark has been spotted and an officer wishes to shoot at it, or some other such frivolous reason, he gives the key to the ship’s Armourer, Mr Coleman.

  And where will all the rest of the crew go? Exactly. All are aware that this will be a problem when the ship takes on its cargo.24

  As ever, they will just have to do the best they can, with the bulk of the 33 seamen hanging their hammocks and placing their sea-chest in whatever spot they can find or
wrestle ‘before the mast’, on the lower deck – in a rough rectangle measuring 22 feet by 36 feet, with some of the ‘space also taken up by hatches, companionways and the stove’.25 As they must eat and live in the same space, if not sleeping they must stow their hammocks so benches and seats may come out. It means they will all be living cheek by jowl by towel with each other once they load the bread-fruit plants on, but they will have to deal with that when the time comes. Behind the seamen are the berths of the Midshipmen.

  For his part, Captain Bligh is not worried. He is confident that there is nothing the sea can throw at him that he won’t be able to cope with. He always has before. That said, he is concerned that the ship’s three masts, although they are regulation Royal Navy size, are too large for the small ship that holds them. Reducing them in height will restrict both the weight on the ship, and the amount of sail that can be put upon them – making the ship a little slower, yes, but much more manageable.

  The last is particularly important for the route Sir Joseph Banks has in mind, for this mission – around Cape Horn – might be a bit on the blowy side of things.

  Bligh also has strong ideas on the inadequacy of the three ship’s boats provided by the Navy Board – ‘a 20-foot Launch, 18-foot Cutter and a 16-foot Cutter or Jolly Boat’.26

  No matter that all three boats are already in situ at the Deptford Yards, and ready to be placed on the Bounty. With just one glance, Bligh, who has strong views on the virtues of larger boats for the endless ferrying required on long voyages, decides he wants a larger Launch and bigger Cutter, and his requests are granted.

  When the larger Launch arrives – a vessel designed to have the capacity for two masts to be fitted – Bligh looks it over. Still no more than 23 feet long, it has a breadth of six feet nine inches, a depth of two feet nine inches and could carry 13 people27 in relative comfort.

  Now, when it comes to filling out that crew roster, the majority of the men, all volunteers, are recommended to him by the Navy Board, but as Captain, Bligh may over-rule those recommendations and also has the capacity to hand-pick many of his men. One of the first so selected is a young fellow, Fletcher Christian.

  Hailing from the Isle of Man – that picturesque island, which lies halfway between Great Britain and Ireland, where Bligh’s own beloved wife Betsy Betham had been born and raised – Fletcher is a young gentleman who can include no less than King Edward I of England high on his family tree. There is about him the air of a natural leader, a young prince who has not yet found his kingdom, which has deeply impressed Bligh on their previous voyages together, most recently aboard the Britannia, when the younger man had been serving as a mere Gunner. Bligh treated him as a Second Mate, an officer in the making, as they had gone to Jamaica and back. The two become such fast friends that Bligh had Fletcher ‘to dine and sup every other day in the cabin; and treated him like a brother in giving him every information’.28 Christian is a Captain’s favourite indeed. Of course, as Fletcher is so much younger and junior, Bligh is not remotely threatened by this charming fellow’s natural command of the crew, but is aware how useful it can be to have such a highly educated and naturally capable man in your service. Still, it is quite possible that Bligh was too fond of him from the first, as one of the Captain’s former First Mates would insist that when it came to Fletcher Christian, Bligh is ‘blind to his faults’.29

  The Bounty’s Launch

  Bligh and Christian are a study in contrasts. While Bligh’s head is a little like a blurry painting, with no sharp edges, Christian’s is chiselled and handsome. While Bligh is the first in his family to achieve anything, anywhere, Christian has a brother ensconced in academia at Cambridge University, and an uncle who is the Bishop of Carlisle. While Bligh is temperamental and vain, Christian, despite his lower rank, leads easily, yet is dutiful. And yet, somehow, the two are close.

  And for his part Fletcher Christian is delighted at the offer to join the crew of the Bounty, and happy to be under the command of Bligh once more, this time in the position of Master’s Mate.

  The charismatic young Christian has done so well with Bligh, in fact, that he becomes a family friend, dining in the Bligh family home between voyages, dandling Bligh’s infant daughters on his knee, as the toddlers compete for his always laughing attention.

  This will be their third voyage together, and Fletcher could not be happier.

  Not everyone, however, is convinced that Bligh’s stewardship of this young man’s career is altogether wise, believing that Christian’s charm far outweighs whatever maritime skills he actually possesses.

  Among them is the Chief Mate from their latest voyage to Jamaica on the Britannia, who cannot believe Bligh has been so seduced once more as to give Fletcher Christian another promotion.

  For yes, he had seen it all up close, don’t you see?

  On that last trip, noting Bligh’s fondness for the young man, the Chief Mate had gone out of his way to show Christian the ropes, only to find ‘he went about every point of duty with a degree of indifference that to me was truly unpleasant’.30

  And so now Bligh has given him another position?

  Of course he has. But the Chief Mate thinks it most unwise.

  For his part, Christian is aware that there are those who think he is moving too fast for one so young, but he can still hardly believe his luck at having found a mentor such as Bligh.

  As it happens Christian is not the only scion of a well-connected family from the Isle of Man to be hand-picked by Bligh. Peter Heywood, in some ways a younger model of Christian, has never before shinnied up rigging in a storm, never been on a watch, never been out in the open seas, and is still just 15 years old. Bligh’s fondness for him – even hosting him in his London home prior to the voyage – and the fact he is from the upper class, has seen him be given the nominal role of ‘Honorary Midshipman’, which means he can enjoy the privileges of one, even though he doesn’t yet know his starboard from his larboard, and barely the bow from the stern. Indeed, Heywood will be well and truly out of his depth on the open ocean and will have to learn fast. No problem, young Peter is much better educated than the usual run of sailors, is a quick learner, and lad of no small talent. As well as a deft artist, he is a poet and very good writer.

  •

  Inevitably as Bligh spends much of his first weeks as the Bounty’s captain overseeing the work, he and the ship’s company start to get to know each other. The ship’s complement is 46 men in total. Bligh is the only commissioned officer on board, followed by five warrant officers appointed by the Navy Board, experienced men of the sea who are expert in their particular fields: the Master, Bosun, Surgeon, Carpenter, and Gunner. Then there is a swathe of Midshipmen – the young gentlemen, aspiring to one day become officers – and then there are the Able Seamen, enlisted sailors who work the ship at the order of the officers. And of course, the two civilians, the botanists.

  The Master for the voyage – the second-in-command, the most senior of the warrant officers and the man upon whom Bligh must rely to take watch and navigate – is a man completely unknown to Bligh, but one who comes with a fine reputation for disciplined navigation. A Mr John Fryer.

  From the outset, Bligh notes that Fryer goes about his duties with an air of one who is defensive of his own turf. He is gruff and hardworking, and thanks to a complete lack of charm, he does not make friends easily. But he is more than competent in the technical side of the work, and that is enough for Captain Bligh.

  Two other senior men who owe their presence on the ship to Bligh’s patronage are the vastly experienced Gunner, Bligh’s fellow Cook shipmate, William Peckover, and the Armourer, Joseph Coleman.

  The Bounty’s oldest crew member, at 43, is the Surgeon – ‘sawbones’ as the men call him – Thomas Huggan. Though Captain Bligh has been assured from the first that the good doctor is worth his salt, just one look at him raises obvious concerns. Clearly, this is a dissolute, obese man, with the jowls of a bulldog, and a moist pink rim lining his
puffy eyes. So they will be starting this long journey with the man in charge of the men’s health being the unhealthiest man both before and after the mast. Now, while saying Bligh is not happy is a little like saying Bligh is breathing – it is simply in his nature – in this case he is particularly unhappy. For, of the many things he learnt from James Cook, the need to ensure the health of the crew is among the most important. He will be fastidious about their diet and cleanliness, and hopes to not lose a man to scurvy while on the High Seas. (This is unlike common commanders of the time, who regard men dying from scurvy as being the normal state of affairs.)

  So his commitment to good health means he would like to start the journey with a doctor who looks like he is equipped for the task, and this man is far from it. But, we will see.

  In contrast to the marked age and experience of Bligh and his top officers, most of the rest of the Bounty’s crew are somewhere between merely young, and remarkably wet behind the ears – most of them well under 30, a few on the shy side of 20.

  Of particular note is a gaggle of lads on board, the so-called ‘Young Gentlemen’, including 15-year-old Midshipman John Hallett31 and 20-year-old Thomas Hayward. Then there are the ‘Honorary Midshipmen’, lads of little to no seafaring experience who are nevertheless quartered with the actual Midshipmen and given the same privileges as them. Youngest of these aspirants is tiny Tinkler, Robert, the brother-in-law of Master Fryer. (Although the Master has entered Robert on the books as a 17-year-old in order to draw a higher salary, Captain Bligh quickly determines he is no older than 12, and so always addresses him as ‘Boy’ to needle Mr Fryer, a new favourite pastime of the Captain and one at which he excels.)

  A Young Gentleman of note is George Stewart, 21 years old, now living the dream that started a decade before when he was himself a wee lad and his well-to-do father, living at Stromness in Scotland’s Orkney Islands, had hosted in their home a young William Bligh and other officers of the late, great Captain James Cook, after their return from the tragic voyage of the Resolution and Discovery.