Fateful Voyage

Revised 10/8/2008

Preface Masts
&
Sails		 Chron-
ology		 Timeline Bounty
Logbook		 William
Bligh		 John
Fryer		 James
Morrison		 Peter
Heywood		 Bond
Letter
Pandora Minutes
&
Appendix		 Court
Martials		 Articles
of
War		 Pitcairn Maps Other
Stuff		 Find
Stuff		 Sitemap Credits

The Mutiny on the Bounty

The original source documents, all in one place.

"...and sailed with a fair wind."

So wrote Lieutenant William Bligh, Commander of His Majesty's Armed Vessel Bounty, of their departure from Spithead, England, on December 23, 1787, with 46 men aboard. They were bound for Tahiti in the South Pacific on a mission to gather breadfruit for transplanting in the West Indies, in the hopes of providing a cheap food source for the slaves of the English planters there.

"Then, on 5 March 1829, John Adams, venerable and corpulent, died at the age of 62."

So wrote the author of Pitcairn's History on the Pitcairn Island website, of the mutineer known as Alexander Smith, the last survivor of the mutineers who remained with the Bounty.

Countless articles and books have been written and several movies have been made telling some part of the story of the Bounty. All of those articles, books, and movies have been based on the same source material, either directly or indirectly.

The primary purpose of this site is to bring together in one place as many of those source materials as I am able to track down and get hold of. The secondary purpose is to add material such as the Timeline, which I think may help to illuminate the story.

I suggest starting with Preface, which begins with a very brief retelling of the story, followed by a What's Here section. Unless you've done some study of the story, there is probably more to it than you know about. The 'Preface' will get you up to speed.

Using the site

Some terms, such as 3 leagues, have a dashed underline. Move the mouse over these and a little popup with a short explanation will appear, and disappear when you move the mouse away.

In many places on the site you will see the word map such as here Map. Clicking on these will show a map in the top left corner of your browser window. These you have to click on the 'close' in the top right corner, or click on another 'map,' or move the mouse over an underlined term as described above.

On these maps, the tracks of the various ships are as show below:

Tracks


Contact