William
Bligh was born at St Tudy, Cornwall, in 1754 and joined the Royal Navy at the
age of seven, as was normal then for ‘young gentlemen’ hoping to become naval
officers. He would have come to ‘know the ropes’, as he became a midshipman at
sixteen – an officer cadet who worked and berthed in the middle of the ship
(midships), and he would have taken the formal examinations set by the Royal
Navy, as he was selected by Captain James Cook to serve as a sailing master on
the sloop HMS Resolution.
William Bligh |
Captain Cook, described as the ‘first navigator in
Europe’, had already made two voyages of discovery to the South Seas, and in
1776 he departed on a third voyage, with the primary aim of finding a Northwest
Passage, a sea route between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans north of the North
American landmass via the Canadian archipelagos. Such a route, if found, would
eliminate the risks involved in rounding the southern capes (particularly Cape
Horn). Serving under Cook, the young Bligh would have received the finest available
naval education in the arts of navigation, surveying, cartography and
seamanship. Unfortunately, due to misunderstandings, Hawaiian natives murdered
Cook in February 1779 and the Northwest Passage remained undiscovered.
Resolution returned to England in October 1780.
Bligh left the Royal Navy and
worked for the merchant fleet until 1787, when he rejoined the service to take
command of HMAV Bounty, partly in recognition of his experience gained with
Cook. The Hull-built collier Bethia had been bought and refitted for the
specific mission of transporting breadfruit and mangosteen plants from Tahiti
to the West Indies.
Plan of Bounty - showing how breadfruit plants were stored - from Bligh's Voyage to the South Seas |
Bethia was chosen over five other vessels by Sir Joseph
Banks, who had sailed as botanist on Cook’s first voyage, when he discovered numerous
new species of plants, the profusion of which had caused Cook to rename his
proposed Sting Ray Harbour as Botany Bay, Australia, the discovery of which
marked the beginning of England’s interests in the newly-found continent. Banks
had noted the benefits of the breadfruit when Cook’s expedition landed in
Tahiti (then called Otaheite) in 1769. The plant offered a nutritional food,
with a high yield of about 200 fruits per tree, which could be used as a cheap
food for plantation slaves.
Breadfruit - from Bligh's Voyage to the South Seas |
As President of The Royal Society, Banks proposed a
money prize and Gold Medal for an expedition to transport the plants, and
lobbied the Admiralty for a ship. Lieutenant Bligh assumed command of the
Bounty and departed on December 23rd 1787.
Title page of Bligh's Voyage to the South Seas - 1792 |
The initial aim was to
round Cape Horn and enter the Pacific by a western route, but storms at the
Cape prevented the Bounty from making progress, and after a month of trying,
Bligh abandoned the attempt, turned about and set sail for Cape Horn and the
longer, easier, eastern route to Tahiti. His log shows him to have been an
excellent sailor and officer; he was scrupulous about cleanliness onboard ship,
organised regular exercise for the men to maintain their fitness, and made sure
they were served with a varied, nutritious diet. Bounty made landfall in Tahiti
on the morning of October 26th 1788; Bligh calculated they had
sailed 27,086 miles in ten months, at an average of 108 miles per day.
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