Preparations The Royal Navy had purchased
Bethia for the sole purpose of carrying out the mission of acquiring
breadfruit plants from
Tahiti, which would then be transported to the
British West Indies as a cheap source of food for the region's
slaves. English naturalist
Sir Joseph Banks originated the idea and promoted it in Britain, recommending Lieutenant
William Bligh to the
Admiralty as the mission's commander. Bligh, in turn, was promoted in rank via a prize offered by the
Royal Society of Arts. In June 1787,
Bounty was refitted at
Deptford. The
great cabin was converted to house the potted breadfruit plants, and gratings were fitted to the upper deck. William Bligh was appointed commanding lieutenant of
Bounty on 16 August 1787 at the age of 33, after a career that included a tour as
sailing master of the
sloop Resolution during the
third voyage of James Cook, which lasted from 1776 to 1780. The
ship's complement consisted of 46 men, with Bligh as the sole commissioned officer, two civilian gardeners to care for the breadfruit plants and the remaining crew consisting of enlisted Royal Navy personnel.
Voyage out On 23 December 1787,
Bounty sailed from
Spithead for
Tahiti. For a full month, the crew attempted to take the ship west, around South America's
Cape Horn, but adverse weather prevented this. Bligh then proceeded east, rounding the southern tip of Africa (
Cape Agulhas) and crossing the width of the
Indian Ocean, a route 7,000 miles longer. During the outward voyage, Bligh demoted
Sailing Master John Fryer, replacing him with
Fletcher Christian . This act seriously damaged the relationship between Bligh and Fryer, and Fryer later claimed that Bligh's act was entirely personal. Bligh is commonly portrayed as the epitome of abusive sailing captains, but this portrayal has recently come into dispute. Caroline Alexander points out in her 2003 book
The Bounty that Bligh was relatively lenient compared with other British naval officers. Bligh enjoyed the patronage of
Sir Joseph Banks, a wealthy botanist and influential figure in Britain at the time. That, together with his experience sailing with Cook, familiarity with navigation in the area, and local customs were probably important factors in his appointment.
Bounty reached Tahiti, then called "Otaheite", on 26 October 1788, after ten months at sea. The crew spent five months there collecting and preparing 1,015 breadfruit plants to be transported to the West Indies. Bligh allowed the crew to live ashore and care for the potted breadfruit plants, and they became socialised to the customs and culture of the Tahitians. Many of the seamen and some of the "young gentlemen" had themselves
tattooed in native fashion.
Master's Mate and Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian married Maimiti, a Tahitian woman. Other
warrant officers and seamen were also said to have formed "connections" with native women.
Mutiny and destruction of the ship , 1790 After five months in Tahiti,
Bounty set sail with her breadfruit cargo on 4 April 1789. Some west of Tahiti, near
Tonga, mutiny broke out on 28 April 1789. Despite strong words and threats heard on both sides, the ship was taken bloodlessly and apparently without struggle by any of the loyalists except Bligh himself. Of the 42 men on board aside from Bligh and Christian, 22 joined Christian in mutiny, two were passive, and 18 remained loyal to Bligh. The mutineers ordered Bligh, two
midshipmen, the
surgeon's mate (Ledward), and the ship's clerk into the
ship's boat. Several more men voluntarily joined Bligh rather than remain aboard. Bligh and his men sailed the open boat to
Tofua in search of supplies, but were forced to flee after attacks by hostile natives resulted in the death of one of the men. Bligh then undertook an arduous journey to the Dutch settlement of
Coupang, located over from Tofua. He safely landed there 47 days later, having lost no men during the voyage except the one killed on Tofua. The mutineers sailed for the island of
Tubuai, where they tried to settle. After three months of bloody conflict with the natives, however, they returned to Tahiti. Sixteen of the mutineers – including the four loyalists who had been unable to accompany Bligh – remained there, taking their chances that the Royal Navy would not find them and bring them to justice. was sent out by the Admiralty in November 1790 in pursuit of
Bounty, to capture the mutineers and bring them back to Britain to face a
court martial. She arrived in March 1791 and captured fourteen men within two weeks; they were locked away in a makeshift wooden prison on
Pandoras quarterdeck. The men called their cell "Pandora's box". They remained in their prison until 29 August 1791 when
Pandora was wrecked on the
Great Barrier Reef with the loss of 35 lives, including one loyalist and three mutineers (Stewart, Sumner, Skinner, and Hildebrand). Immediately after setting the sixteen men ashore in Tahiti in September 1789, Fletcher Christian, eight other crewmen, six Tahitian men, and 11 women, one with a baby, set sail in
Bounty hoping to elude the Royal Navy. According to a journal kept by one of Christian's followers, the Tahitians were actually kidnapped when Christian set sail without warning them, the purpose of this being to acquire the women. The mutineers passed through the
Fiji and
Cook Islands, but feared that they would be found there. Continuing their quest for a safe haven, on 15 January 1790 they rediscovered
Pitcairn Island, which had been misplaced on the Royal Navy's charts. After the decision was made to settle on Pitcairn, livestock and other provisions were removed from
Bounty. To prevent the ship's detection, and anyone's possible escape, the ship was burned on 23 January 1790 in what is now called
Bounty Bay. The mutineers remained undetected on Pitcairn until February 1808, when sole remaining mutineer
John Adams and the surviving Tahitian women and their children were discovered by the Boston sealer
Topaz, commanded by Captain
Mayhew Folger of
Nantucket,
Massachusetts. Adams gave to Folger the
Bounty azimuth compass and
marine chronometer. Seventeen years later, in 1825, , on a voyage of exploration under Captain
Frederick William Beechey, arrived on Christmas Day off Pitcairn and spent 19 days there. Beechey later recorded this in his 1831 published account of the voyage, as did one of his crew, John Bechervaise, in his 1839
Thirty-Six Years of a Seafaring Life by an Old Quarter Master. Beechey wrote a detailed account of the mutiny as recounted to him by the last survivor, Adams. Bechervaise, who described the life of the islanders, says he found the remains of
Bounty and took some pieces of wood from it which were turned into souvenirs such as
snuff boxes. ==Mission details==