Author(s): William Bligh

History

The mutiny on the Bounty, William Bligh told his patron Sir Joseph Banks, was 'one of the most atrocious and consummate acts of piracy ever committed'. The mutiny is perhaps the most famous in naval history, but its sequel, 'a voyage of the most extraordinary nature that ever happened in the world', is often overlooked. Cast adrift by the mutineers in a 7-metre open boat, Bligh set out with 18 crew to cross the Pacific from Tonga to Timor without any charts and with little food or water. The launch was barely above the water, and in a journey of 6,000 kilometres to safety they fended off canoe attacks by hostile islanders and almost succumbed to starvation, exhaustion, thirst and exposure. Banks had been the chief promoter of the Bounty's mission to transport breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the West Indies, and on the 13 October 1789, Bligh wrote to Banks from Indonesia to tell him the project had failed. His account, written while the events were still fresh in his mind, is printed here.