Charles Churchill (mutineer)

Churchill was born in Manchester in 1759. Little else is recorded of his early life in England. Between August and the October of 1787, Bountys crew was being assigned for the voyage to Tahiti. On 7 September 1787, Churchill signed on as the ships corporal, a task including the assistance of maintaining the order amongst the crew. == Desertion during Bounty expedition ==

On 5 January 1789 while at Tahiti and three months before departure, three crew members, Charles Churchill, along with the gunner’s mate John Millward and seaman William Muspratt deserted ship, taking the ship's cutter, muskets and ammunition. Muspratt had recently been flogged for neglect of duty. Bligh records the incident in the ship's log: Among belongings Churchill left on the Bounty included a list of names that Bligh construed as more accomplices in a planned desertion. Bligh later asserted that the names included those of midshipman Peter Heywood and Fletcher Christian. Churchill, Millward and Muspratt were eventually found after three weeks of hiding and, on their return to the ship, were flogged in two sessions with Churchill receiving a dozen lashes, and the others two dozen each. Churchill and his fellow deserters composed a letter hoping to appease Bligh on return to England and avoid possible fatal consequences on the result of a court martial. ''(Bligh refers to this letter in his reply to Edward Christian's defence of his brother Fletcher)'' == During the mutiny and Bligh's description ==

Churchill was one of Fletcher Christian's loyalists who entered Bligh's cabin under arms and forced him on deck on the morning of the mutiny, 28 April 1789. Bligh describes Churchill in his notebook while cast in Bountys launch: == On Tahiti and fate ==

When Christian sailed the Bounty to Tahiti for the final time before heading to Pitcairn, Churchill along with 15 other crew members, voted to stay. He had an ally, Vehiatua who was a minor chief of Taiarapu, a part of south east Tahiti, brother in law of the Tahitian King Otoo. Churchill actively participated in the ongoing political conflicts between the island districts, and with weapons acquired from the Bounty, he contributed in changing the relatively non-lethal nature of the disputes between chiefdoms into bloody slaughter. == Portrayals ==

Churchill has been portrayed by: • Pat Flaherty (1935) Mutiny on the Bounty • Liam Neeson (1984) The Bounty == References ==