The Mutineers of the Bounty: An 1820 Account of Pitcairn’s

The Mutineers of the Bounty: An 1820 Account of Pitcairn’s Island

â€œThe Mutineers of the Bounty: An 1820 Account of Pitcairnâ€™s Islandâ€ is the story of the men who led the famous Mutiny on the Bounty on 28 April 1789. This mutiny took place on the British Royal Navy ship the HMS Bounty in the South Pacific.

The mutineers, led by a sailor named Christian Fletcher, took control of the ship, and put he captain, William Bligh, and the sailors who supported him, out on a boat.

The mission of Captain Bligh and the Bounty was the get breadfruit trees from the Pacific island of Tahiti and bring them to the British West Indies. The British believed that the big, starchy, fruit of the trees would provide a cheap source of food for the enslaved people in their Caribbean colonies.

The Bounty left England in 1787. The ship and its sailors spent 5 months in Tahiti, and during this time the sailor lived on the island and had sexual relationships with the local people.

After the stay in Tahiti relations between Bligh and the sailors deteriorated, ending with a sailor named Fletcher Christian leading a mutiny. The sailorsâ€™ stay on Tahiti must have contrasted sharply with the harsh British naval discipline of the time, fuelling dissatisfaction.

After taking control of the ship, the mutineers returned to Tahiti. There, some chose to stay on the island. But Christian and a group of followers took the ship, along with some Polynesian men and women, to find an island of their own to settle.

They landed on the remote Pitcairn Island in early 1790, and burned the ship so that it wouldnâ€™t give away their location. The early years of the settlement on Pitcairn were characterized by escalating rivalries and violence.

The Polynesian men turned on the European sailors in 1793, apparently angered when the sailors took one of the Polynesian menâ€™s wives or killed some of the Polynesian men who they suspected of conspiring against them. The Polynesians killed five of the sailors, including Christian. Four mutineers survived, including John Adams.

The Polynesian men reportedly tried to kill Adams, but he was able to overpower his attacker. The Polynesian men on the island were subsequently killed by the Polynesian widows of the sailors, or by each other, so that they were all dead by 1794.

Of the remaining sailors, one committed suicide, while the other, who was reportedly drunk and disruptive, was killed by the two others, Young and Adams.

Young died in 1800, leaving Adams as the only surviving mutineer on Pitcairn. In 1808 an American sealing vessel, the Topaz, landed on Pitcairn, discovering the descendants of the sailors. The British government received the news of the discovery in 1810, but paid little attention because of its preoccupation with the Napoleonic wars.

In 1814 Sir Thomas Staines, a British naval commander who was unaware of the occupation of Pitcairn by the descendants of the mutineers, came upon the island. Staines met the islanders, who numbered 46, including Adams. Staines made a report on the island to his commanders in Britain, but it was decided that Adams would be given amnesty and the islanders would not be molested.

In 1838 Pitcairn became a British colony. In the mid-19th century the growing population of Pitcairn was becoming to big for the island, and some inhabitants were resettled on Norfolk Island, located between Australia and New Zealand. In the late 19th century the Pitcairn islanders were converted to Seventh Day Adventism by missionaries.

Today Pitcairn island is still inhabited by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitian or Polynesian women. Pitcairn remains a British overseas territory.

The Mutiny on the Bounty inspired several books and films including ones starring Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Anthony Hopkins, and Mel Gibson.
Country USA
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2015-05-27
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2015-05-27
Format	Kindle eBook

The Mutineers of the Bounty: An 1820 Account of Pitcairn’s Island

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