Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Signet Book (1962), Paperback, 238 pages
Description
History. Military. Nonfiction. HTML: Cast out from their ship by Fletcher Christian and his rebel band, William Bligh and eighteen seamen were forced to journey thousands of miles to the nearest port in a small open boat, with inadequate supplies and without a compass or charts. This time-honored classic, written in 1790, is Bligh's personal account of an extraordinary feat of seamanship, in which he used a sextant, a pocket watch, and his own iron will to direct an ill-equipped vessel and crew to safety across nearly 4,000 miles of rolling sea. Bligh's memoir also recounts the events of a routine voyage of scientific exploration to Tahiti that achieved legendary status when it erupted into the world's most famous mutiny. The captain's narrative offers a marked contrast to the familiar tale of film and fiction. Anyone who thrilled to the Bounty movies, along with all lovers of maritime adventure, will be captivated by this story of daring and perseverance..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jasonlf
A great collection of original documents about the Mutiny on the Bounty. Together they tell as good a sea yarn as any novel, complete with a Rashomon-like quality as two parties to the mutiny see everything in precisely opposite ways -- while agreeing on fragments of key details. There is some
Specifically, the items included in this volume are:
--Captain's Bligh's account of the mutiny and his 4,000 mile journey to safety in a long boat following it. Told in precise nautical terms -- dwelling less on the mutiny and more on how he survived following it and what he discovered in the process.
--A partial transcript of the court martial of the mutineers compiled with an appendix by Edward Christian, brother of the chief mutineer Fletcher Christian. This is intended to be largely exculpatory for his brother, arguing the Bligh was a borderline-psychotic taskmaster.
--A reply to the Appendix by Bligh and a short reply-to-the-reply by Christian.
--Captain's Bligh's orders and discoveries.
--An account of a mutineer captured on Tahiti and his transport back to England.
--Two news accounts of the discovery of the last surviving mutineer on Pitcairn Island in the Pacific.
--An account by "Jenny," who lived on Pitcairn Island.
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repetition, especially in some of the transcripts from the trial and testimonial letters on the character of Captain Bligh. This repetition, however, contributes to an almost biblical quality to the text as it lists names after names, retells the same story from different perspectives, and compiles narratives with more straightforward information.Specifically, the items included in this volume are:
--Captain's Bligh's account of the mutiny and his 4,000 mile journey to safety in a long boat following it. Told in precise nautical terms -- dwelling less on the mutiny and more on how he survived following it and what he discovered in the process.
--A partial transcript of the court martial of the mutineers compiled with an appendix by Edward Christian, brother of the chief mutineer Fletcher Christian. This is intended to be largely exculpatory for his brother, arguing the Bligh was a borderline-psychotic taskmaster.
--A reply to the Appendix by Bligh and a short reply-to-the-reply by Christian.
--Captain's Bligh's orders and discoveries.
--An account of a mutineer captured on Tahiti and his transport back to England.
--Two news accounts of the discovery of the last surviving mutineer on Pitcairn Island in the Pacific.
--An account by "Jenny," who lived on Pitcairn Island.
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LibraryThing member educ318
This book I read as a choice for 8th grade English class and found it to be very enjoyable. The details are amazing. I felt like I was in the tropics on the run from a crazy captain. It was the largest book I had read at the time. Well until I read Gone with the Wind. Amanda Fall 2010
LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
It never ceases to amaze me just how interesting the same events described over and over in the driest possible historical professional tone can actually be, when the stakes are high enough. The chapters of this describing the post-mutiny trip of nineteen people in a ship's boat over 3,000 miles,
(Obviously this is by the man's own hand, so Bligh comes off reasonably well in this book - or rather, he doesn't come off badly. He professes not the slightest understanding of why anyone would mutiny against him, which I think I believe. It does eventually become apparent that in the entire journey from the Bounty to Timor, he never ones mentions something that any of the other eighteen people in that boat actually did on their own initiative, and I find that both unlikely and somewhat telling of the narrator.)
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mostly on open sea, is fascinating. The pre-mutiny chapters on the islands are interesting, in the way historical accounts of interactions with natives are always interesting, if a little offputting at times. The very earliest and very latest chapters are basically a chronicle of a naval officer doing his duty in poorly-charted waters and are very, very boring. (Obviously this is by the man's own hand, so Bligh comes off reasonably well in this book - or rather, he doesn't come off badly. He professes not the slightest understanding of why anyone would mutiny against him, which I think I believe. It does eventually become apparent that in the entire journey from the Bounty to Timor, he never ones mentions something that any of the other eighteen people in that boat actually did on their own initiative, and I find that both unlikely and somewhat telling of the narrator.)
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LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
It never ceases to amaze me just how interesting the same events described over and over in the driest possible historical professional tone can actually be, when the stakes are high enough. The chapters of this describing the post-mutiny trip of nineteen people in a ship's boat over 3,000 miles,
(Obviously this is by the man's own hand, so Bligh comes off reasonably well in this book - or rather, he doesn't come off badly. He professes not the slightest understanding of why anyone would mutiny against him, which I think I believe. It does eventually become apparent that in the entire journey from the Bounty to Timor, he never ones mentions something that any of the other eighteen people in that boat actually did on their own initiative, and I find that both unlikely and somewhat telling of the narrator.)
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mostly on open sea, is fascinating. The pre-mutiny chapters on the islands are interesting, in the way historical accounts of interactions with natives are always interesting, if a little offputting at times. The very earliest and very latest chapters are basically a chronicle of a naval officer doing his duty in poorly-charted waters and are very, very boring. (Obviously this is by the man's own hand, so Bligh comes off reasonably well in this book - or rather, he doesn't come off badly. He professes not the slightest understanding of why anyone would mutiny against him, which I think I believe. It does eventually become apparent that in the entire journey from the Bounty to Timor, he never ones mentions something that any of the other eighteen people in that boat actually did on their own initiative, and I find that both unlikely and somewhat telling of the narrator.)
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1789-1790: "Log of the Proceedings of His Majestys Ship Bounty......." by William Bligh
1792: "A Voyage to the South Sea, etc." by William Bligh
ISBN
none