This article is about the historical event. The mutiny on the Royal Pandora valentine’s day 2021 vessel HMS Bounty occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Bounty had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies.
After Bligh reached England in April 1790, the Admiralty despatched HMS Pandora to apprehend the mutineers. Fourteen were captured in Tahiti and imprisoned on board Pandora, which then searched without success for Christian’s party that had hidden on Pitcairn Island. Christian’s group remained undiscovered on Pitcairn until 1808, by which time only one mutineer, John Adams, remained alive. Almost all of his fellow mutineers, including Christian, had been killed, either by each other or by their Polynesian companions. Tahitian captives live on Pitcairn into the 21st century. Bounty, or HMS Bounty, was built in 1784 at the Blaydes shipyard in Hull, Yorkshire, as a collier named Bethia. Polynesian island in the south Pacific, to the British colonies in the West Indies.
After a period of idleness, Bligh took temporary employment in the mercantile service and in 1785 was captain of the Britannia, a vessel owned by his wife’s uncle Duncan Campbell. Directly beneath Bligh were his warrant officers, appointed by the Navy Board and headed by the sailing master John Fryer. Bligh or were recommended to him by influential patrons. The two botanists, or “gardeners”, were chosen by Banks. The chief botanist, David Nelson, was a veteran of Cook’s third expedition who had been to Tahiti and had learned some of the natives’ language.
Among the older crewmembers were the 39-year-old Peckover, who had sailed on all three of Cook’s voyages, and Lawrence Lebogue, a year older and formerly sailmaker on Britannia. Living space on the ship was allocated on the basis of rank. Bligh, having yielded the great cabin, occupied private sleeping quarters with an adjacent dining area or pantry on the starboard side of the ship, and Fryer a small cabin on the opposite side. On 15 October 1787, Bounty left Deptford for Spithead, in the English Channel, to await final sailing orders. As the ship settled into its sea-going routine, Bligh introduced Cook’s strict discipline regarding sanitation and diet. From the start of the voyage, Bligh had established warm relations with Christian, according him a status which implied that he was Bligh’s second-in-command rather than Fryer.
On 2 March, Bligh formalised the position by assigning Christian to the rank of Acting Lieutenant. On 2 April, as Bounty approached Cape Horn, a strong gale and high seas began an unbroken period of stormy weather which, Bligh wrote, “exceeded what I had ever met with before with severe squalls of hail and sleet”. On 24 May 1788, Bounty anchored in False Bay, east of the Cape of Good Hope, where five weeks were spent in repairs and reprovisioning. Bligh’s letters home emphasised how fit and well he and his crew were, by comparison with other vessels, and expressed hope that he would receive credit for this.