Beginning

The true story of Capt. Bligh

Captain William Bligh

The courtyard of a building on the banks of the Thames is a splendid example of an English garden. There is a tombstone in the centre of the garden. The inscription on the stone reads:

SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
WILLIAM BLIGH ESQUIRE FRS
VICE ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE
THE CELEBRATED NAVIGATOR
WHO FIRST TRANSPLANTED THE BREADFRUIT TREE
FROM OTAHETTE TO THE WEST INDIES
BRAVELY FOUGHT THE BATTLES OF HIS COUNTRY
AND DIED BELOVED RESPECTED AND LAMENTED
ON THE 7th DAY OF DECEMBER 1817
AGED 64

FRS = Fellow of Royal Society

Before the Bounty

William Bligh was born in Plymouth, England in 1754. Bligh sailed with Captain Cook on Cook's final voyage in 1776 - 1779 and was present at Cook's death after Cook unwisely provoked an armed conflict with natives in Hawaii. Bligh was only 23 at the time but he was a highly skilled chart maker and navigator. Bligh developed many charts during this voyage which were unfairly attributed to Cook's Lieutenants.

Bligh observed Cook's methods for preserving the lives of his crew. Cook's innovations included daily enforced dancing, regular baths, clean clothing, eating sauerkraut and drinking lime juice to prevent scurvy. British sailors are sometimes called 'limeys' as the result of the practices that Captain Cook developed.

in 1781 Bligh was promoted to Lieutenant after the naval action at Dogger Bank. He took part in the relief of Gibraltar in 1782. During a period of peace from 1773 - 1787 he joined the Merchant Service.

Mutiny on the Bounty

At the age of 33 Bligh was selected to command the HMS Bounty on an expedition to take breadfruit from Tahiti and deliver it to the West Indies (Jamaica). Bligh was not promoted to Captain before the journey. As a result, the ship had no high officers, other than Bligh, and no marines to enforce discipline, but only a few subaltern officers. These handicaps, combined with Bligh's unfortunate temperament (acid tongue to insult) and lack of physical stature are factors which eventually allowed the mutiny to develop.

The voyage of the Bounty began at Spithead (near Portsmouth) on the south-east coast of England on 23 December, 1787. More than 10,000 miles were added to the planned voyage when Bligh failed to navigate the Bounty around Cape Horn because of unfavorable winds and huge seas. Bligh then turned east and arrived at Cape Town on 24 May where he spent several weeks refitting and provisioning the Bounty before entering the Indian Ocean.

On 19 October, 1788, nearly 28,000 miles and ten months into the journey, John Mills and the assistant gardener, William Brown, refused to participate in the evening's mandatory dancing. Bligh's inhumane response was to cut off their grog.

The Bounty arrived in Tahiti on 24 October. Following Cook's example, Bligh drafted a set of rules to govern contact with the natives. These rules were intended to keep the death of Captain Cook secret (for Tahitians Capt. Cook was a special demigod) and also forbade discussion of the breadfruit mission. Another purpose was to establish an official market for trade with the natives; however, a black market trade for hogs soon was established by members of the crew.

On 5 April, 1789, loaded with more 1,000 breadfruit plants, the Bounty began a 12,000-mile journey westward toward West Indians (Jamaica). But after five months in Tahiti the crew was idle, slack and undisciplined and the heavy duty on a sail ship annoyed many seamen and even few subaltern officers. The more nostalgic officer was the master mate, second in command, Fletcher Christian. Bligh realized that inconvenient situation and decided by zero-tolerance to enforce the discipline. It didn’t work. On 27 April Bligh apparently provoked the mutiny in a dispute over coconuts. He questioned all the ranking men closely, especially Fletcher Christian, accused Christian of stealing from Bligh's coconut stack and threatened to make half the crew jump overboard. Bligh also threatened to cut the grog ration entirely and reduce the daily yam ration from 1 1/2 lb a day to 1/4 lb. Mr. Christian was reduced to tears by this brutal tongue-lashing. But only threatening words, only words! Of course Bligh flogged much more with his acid tongue than with the whip. Another example was the capture of three runagate seamen in the last days in Tahiti. Bligh altered the punishment and changed hanging (Navy Law) by two dozen lashes.

At dawn on 28 April, Christian and three other men entered Bligh's cabin. Bligh was bound and taken on deck. Eventually he was placed in a small 23-feet-long boat, but so many men wanted to accompany him that it was in danger of being capsized. Finally the boat was loaded with only 18 men, a sextant, a pocket-clock, four cutlasses, 150 pounds of bread, 32 lb of pork, six quarts of rum, six bottles of wine and 28 gallons of water. As he pulled away he shouted either:

'You villains, you God-damned villains! I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you. I'll have every man jack swinging at the yardarm before I'm done - God damn me if I don't!

Bligh suffers unfairly from a reputation as a bully and tyrant. He only had ten men flogged on the long journey with a total of 217 lashes. In contrast, many British Officers used to order much more floggings.

The Long Row

Bligh bleakly assessed his situation and decided to head west to a Dutch trading post on Timor, nearly 3,618 miles distant. Bligh and his party landed on Tofoa in the Friendly Islands to seek water. One member of the party was killed by natives and the rest fled to the boat. After 48 days, on 14 June, 1789, helped by favorable winds, Bligh reached his destination in Timor. This was an astounding feat of navigation, through largely uncharted waters. He lost only one of the eighteen aboard, John Norton, at Tofoa.

The Aftermath

It was characteristic of Bligh's good character, generosity and deep concern for his men that he paid for their food and lodging in Timor from his own personal funds for an extended period. After arranging his own passage from Timor to England, Bligh was found not guilty of all charges at the Bounty inquiry and court martial.

The great botanist and gardener, Sir Joseph Banks, was always in the background guiding Bligh's career. He arranged both trips to Tahiti as well as Bligh's later Governorship of New South Wales. Eventually Banks arranged for Bligh to become a Fellow in the Royal Society, accounting for the FRS letters on his tombstone.

Banks made a spirited defense of Bligh in court martial:

- Gentlemen, of what use is “the truth” to the journals and broadsheets? Their readers don't want the truth. They never do, and they never did. They want heroes and villains. He thumped the table. They want men of wonder, handsome, tall, men of honor — like your supposed image of Fletcher Christian, and men of evil, cunning, unstoppable, who would spit roast their own relatives for the joy of hearing their screams. Like the Captain Bligh's of your fantasy world.


Bligh was promoted to Captain and given command of the Providence. He returned to Tahiti, but gave few punishments and held his tongue during the voyage. This voyage was a triumphant success. Bligh delivered a load of breadfruit plants to St Helena and also St Vincent in the West Indies to feed the slave populations. However the slaves hated breadfruit taste. He also delivered nearly 1300 plants to the Royal Gardens at Kew. The 36 species he brought back included apple, orange, mango, pear and yam. Some of these species still grow in the Royal Gardens.