Tahiti was a beautiful place and when the time came to leave the island, the crew were understandably reluctant to say their goodbyes.įor it appears that the crew had been beguiled by the charms of the Tahitian women, (apparently Tahiti is not called the Friendly Island for nothing), which made the harsh conditions of the Bounty doubly difficult to stomach. The Bounty had orders to collect breadfruit trees from Tahiti, and take them to the West Indies as a food source for the African slaves there. To the men of the Bounty Bligh was a harsh and cruel taskmaster, and chief mate Fletcher Christian became, as did other members of the crew, increasingly mutinous over the course of their journey. He saw service in many naval battles, in 17, and in late 1787 he was chosen by Sir Joseph Banks to command HMS Bounty. He had a ‘colourful’ career, and was personally selected by Captain James Cook to be the sailing master of the Resolution on his second voyage around the world between 1772-74. William Bligh was born in Plymouth on September 9th 1754, and joined the Navy as young man aged 15. The ship was HMS Bounty and the captain, one William Bligh. The exact cause of the mutiny is unclear, but the captain’s harsh and brutal treatment of his men has been offered as a possible explanation that said, conditions on-board ships in those days were very hard. It tells the tale, which is in fact a true story, about a famous mutiny that took place in 1789 on an English ship. Back in the 1930s a blockbuster movie was made which reappears almost every year on the Christmas TV schedule.

The bounty 1984