The names William Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the Bounty have excited the popular imagination for more than two hundred years. On an April morning in 1789, near the island known today as Tonga, William Bligh and eighteen loyal seamen were expelled from the Bounty, and began what would be the greatest open-boat voyage in history, sailing some 4,000 miles to safety in Timor. The mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, sailed off into a mystery that has never been entirely resolved.

Here, in one volume, are all the relevant texts and documents related to a drama that has fascinated generations: the full text of Bligh’s Narrative of the Mutiny, the minutes of the court proceedings gathered by Edward Christian in an effort to clear his brother’s name, and the highly polemic correspondence between Bligh and Christian.

The names of William Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the Bounty have belonged to the popular culture of the English-speaking world for over two hundred years. The story of the most famous mutiny has many beginnings and many endings--all of which intersected on an April morning in 1789 near the Pacific island group we now call Tonga. On that morning, William Bligh and a handful of barely loyal supporters, put off the Bounty into a small launch, began the greatest boat voyage in history, while Fletcher Christian and the Bounty sailed off into a mystery which has never been entirely resolved, despite the discovery of the Bounty colony on Pitcairn Island some twenty years later.

Introduction by R. D. Madison 

Suggestions for Further Reading 

A Note on the Texts 

Maps

A Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His Majesty’s Ship Bounty, by William Bligh Minutes of the Proceedings of the Court-Martial held atPortsmouth, August 12, 1792.

On Ten Persons charged with Mutiny on Board His Majesty’s Ship the Bounty, with an Appendix by Edward Christian

An Answer to Certain Assertions Contained inthe Appendix to a Pamphlet, by William Bligh 

A Short Reply to Capt. William Bligh’s Answer, by Edward Christian 

Appendixes 

Appendix A: Bligh’s Orders and a Description of the Breadfruit

Appendix B: Lady Belcher’s Account of the Pandora (1870) 

Appendix C: The Quarterly Review on the Bounty (1810) 

Appendix D: The Quarterly Review on the Bounty (1815) 

Appendix E: Jenny’s Story (1829) 

Appendix F: John Adams’s Story (1831)