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Mutiny

Captain William Bligh set sail from England on H.M.S Bounty on 23 December 1787. Bligh had been given instructions to collect breadfruit and other plants from Tahiti, and transport the plants to the West Indies, where the English had intended to use the breadfruit as a cheap source of food for slaves.

Bligh was an inflexible disciplinarian, who regularly used his hostile tounge to unmercifully attack his shipmates. Despite his enormous intelligence, Bligh's people skills were virtually non-existent.

Of the crew on board H.M.S Bounty, Master's Mate Fletcher Christian, a product of a wealthy and highly respected English family, was Bligh's closest companion. After 10 months at sea, the Bounty had reached Tahiti, where its crew received an overwhelming friendly welcome from the natives.

The delights of Tahiti, such as its sandy beaches, exotic food, and enticing women, captivated the crew; so much so that the crew stayed for twenty weeks when it took just three to collect the breadfruit plants. Bligh had let discipline crumble during their stay in Tahiti.

When the time came to resume their journey, Bligh immediately converted back to being a strict disciplinarian; continuing to use humiliating insults to scorn officers, including Fletcher Christian, in front of their ship mates. Christian, who had fallen in love and married a Tahitian woman named Mi'Mitti during his stay on Tahiti, took particular offence to Bligh's ongoing abuse.

On 28 April 1789, Christian leads some of his fellow officers to mutineer. Bligh, and 18 of his loyal shipmates, were set adrift in a long boat near one of the Tongan islands. Some seven weeks later, having battled starvation and inclement weather, Bligh arrived at Timor.

Christian returned to Tahiti to collect the 'wives' of his remaining crew, and then proceeded to sail to Toobouai. Having withstood an attack by natives, they decided to return to Tahiti. Sixteen people remained on Tahiti, while nine of the original crew, including Christian, and their wives, six Polynesian men and a baby stayed on the Bounty is search of a sanctuary. They were to find tiny Pitcairn Island, where they settled. (Source: The Essential Guide to Norfolk Island, Peter Clarke)