1789

Fletcher Christian

HMS Bounty, under the command of William Bligh, was sailing from Tahiti with a cargo of breadfruit saplings when the voyage famously ended with a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian. Bligh and 18 crew were cut adrift in the ship's open launch in the Pacific Ocean and left to die.

Bligh navigated one of the greatest survival feats in British maritime history. He sailed through 48 days and 3,618 miles of ocean to Timor, with the loss of one man. His journey is the subject of epic films, documentaries and books. The reasons for the mutiny continue to be debated!