The Melanesians and Polynesians have always been superb sailors. There is perhaps one 18th century Captain, an Englishman, who, together with his crew, would have fully understood and appreciated the amazing sailing skills and courage exhibited by Pacific Islanders. His name is Captain William Bligh ..., yes, the Captain Bligh.
Most people have heard the story or seen the movie made about the 1789 mutiny on the HMAV (His Majesty's Armed Vessel) Bounty. The "Mutiny of the Bounty" did take place much the way its has been portrayed and Captain Bligh, together with 18 of his loyal crew were set adrift upon the Pacific in the Bounty's 23 foot open launch. But what Captain Bligh did after being cast overboard is one of the most amazing feasts of seamanship ever recorded in the archives of maritime history.
On April 28, 1789 master's Mate Fletcher Christian and the mutineers of the Bounty abandoned Captain Bligh at sea deep in the South Pacific. Bligh and his men were given a few days of ration of meat, bread, water and rum. No maps, charts or compass were provided. To navigate the vast Pacific the Captain had with him only a sextant and his pocket watch. For all intents and purposes Fletcher Christian and the mutineers of the Bounty had pronounced death sentence upon the Captain and his men.
When the nearby island of Toufa provided unwelcoming, Bligh determined to sail west to Batavia (modern Jakarta, Indonesia) in the Dutch East Indies. Batavia was the closest European controlled port and Bligh new it was his duty as an Officer of the Royal navy to inform the British Admiralty as quickly as possible concerning the mutiny on the Bounty. The sides of their small, overcrowded boat were only a few inches above the waterline. The men were forced to bail night and day. They endured terrible storms and high waves which could swamp their boat at any moment. They suffered the lack of food and water, the terror of circling sharks and the scorching heat of the tropical sun. As they rowed quickly through the Fiji islands they were not able to stop and search for food and water. Despite their rush, Bligh produced extremely precise hand-drawn maps detailing much of Fiji.
The Bounty mutineers who returned and stayed in Tahiti were in due course captured by British Naval Authorities sent from England for the specific purpose of hunting down ever last of them. They were transported, as prisoners in chains and caged in a box, back to the British Islands. Those who survived the voyage stood trial, a few were acquitted while some were pardoned by the King. Three Bounty mutineers were hanged from the yardarms of the battleship HMS Brunswick on 29 October 1792 in Portsmouth.
What became of Captain Bligh and his men? While usually portrayed by Hollywood as an aging, inept and overweight bully, Bligh in fact was a young Lieutenant, a dashing thirty-four years old Royal Navy officer of exceptional intelligence, physically fit, extremely brave and a highly skilled cartographer, astronomer and navigator. On 14 June 1789, after 47 days at sea, Bligh and his men reached Coupang, Timor, and from there on to the Dutch held Batavia and back to England. They had miraculously rowed and sailed a total of nearly, 4000,00 miles across the South Pacific. Maritime history acknowledges this as one of the most remarkable feats of navigation.
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