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{{Short description|Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator (1754–1817)}}{{distinguish|William Blight}}{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}

factoids

| image = WilliamBligh.jpeg| image_size = | caption = Portrait by Alexander Huey (1814)| order = 4th Governor of New South Wales| term_start = 13 August 1806| term_end = 26 January 1808| monarch = George IIIWilliam Paterson (explorer)>William Paterson| predecessor = Philip Gidley King| successor = Lachlan Macquarie17549|df=y}}| birth_place = Plymouth, Devon (or St Tudy, Cornwall), England181779df=y}}| death_place = London, England| resting_place = St Mary-at-Lambeth, Lambeth, London, England| occupation = Naval officer, colonial administrator| known_for = Mutiny on the BountyElizabeth Betham 15 April 1812 |end=d.}}| children = 8, including Mary Putland| footnotes = | branch = Royal NavyIn 1783, Bligh left the Royal Navy to join the Merchant Service. He returned to the Royal Navy in 1787.}}1787–1817| rank = Vice-Admiral of the Blue| battles = {{Tree list}}

• American Revolutionary War
  • Great Siege of Gibraltar
• Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
  • Battle of Dogger Bank
• War of the First Coalition
  • Battle of Camperdown
• War of the Second Coalition
  • Battle of Copenhagen

{{tree list/end}}| mawards = Naval Gold Medal}}Vice-Admiral William Bligh {{postnominals|country=GBR|FRS}} (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was a British officer in the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. He is best known for the mutiny on HMS Bounty, which occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command. The reasons behind the mutiny continue to be debated. After being set adrift in Bounty{{'}}s launch by the mutineers, Bligh and those loyal to him stopped for supplies on Tofua, losing a man to natives. Bligh and his men reached Timor alive, after a journey of {{convert|3618|nmi|-1}}.On 13 August 1806, Bligh was appointed Governor of New South Wales in Australia, with orders to clean up the corrupt rum trade of the New South Wales Corps. His actions directed against the trade resulted in the so-called Rum Rebellion, during which Bligh was placed under arrest on 26 January 1808 by the New South Wales Corps and deposed from his command, an act which the British Foreign Office later declared to be illegal. He died in London on 7 December 1817.

Early life

Bligh was born on 9 September 1754, but it is not clear where. It is likely that he was born in Plymouth, Devon, as he was baptised at St Andrew's Church on Royal Parade in Plymouth on 4 October 1754,Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1–20, 22 where Bligh's father, Francis (1721–1780), was serving as a customs officer. Bligh's ancestral home of Tinten Manor in St Tudy, near Bodmin, Cornwall, is also a possibility. Bligh's mother, Jane Pearce (née Balsam; 1713–1768), was a widow who married Francis at the age of 40.WEB,weblink Vice-Admiral William Bligh, 9 January 2008, 25 January 2021,weblink dead, Bligh was signed for the Royal Navy at age seven, at a time when it was common to sign on a "young gentleman" simply to gain, or at least record, the experience at sea required for a commission. In 1770, at age 16, he joined HMS Hunter as an able seaman, the term used because there was no vacancy for a midshipman. He became a midshipman early in the following year. In September 1771, Bligh was transferred to {{HMS|Crescent|1779|2}} and remained on the ship for three years.WEB, William Bligh (1754–1817),weblink Captain Cook Society, 17 April 2023, (File:William Bligh, 1775.jpg|right|250px|thumb|William Bligh, 1775 by John Webber)In 1776, Bligh was selected by Captain James Cook (1728–1779), for the position of sailing master of {{HMS|Resolution|1771|2}} and accompanied Cook in July 1776 on Cook's third voyage to the Pacific Ocean, during which Cook was killed and was succeeded by Captain Charles Clerke, who was dying from tuberculosis. Due to his weakened state, Clerke placed Bligh in charge as navigator of the expedition and attempted to explore the Northwest Passage for a second time. Following Cook's and Clerke's deaths, Bligh played a significant role in navigating the beleaguered expedition back to England in August 1780.WEB, Seafaring Tales Presents: Captain James Cook's Second and Third Voyages,weblink Youtube, He was also able to supply details of Cook's last voyage following the return.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}Bligh married Elizabeth Betham, daughter of a customs collector (stationed in Douglas, Isle of Man), on 4 February 1781.WEB, Vice Admiral William Bligh,weblink Pacific Union College, 17 April 2023, The wedding took place at nearby Onchan.{{sfn|Kneale|2007}} The couple had eight children together: six daughters and twin sons (the boys died in infancy). The couple remained married until Elizabeth's death on 15 April 1812.WEB, Elizabeth (Betsey) Betham,weblink Ancestry.com, 18 April 2023, A few days after the wedding, Bligh was appointed to serve on HMS Belle Poule as master (senior warrant officer responsible for navigation). Soon after this, in August 1781, he fought in the Battle of Dogger Bank under Admiral Parker, which won him his commission as a lieutenant. For the next 18 months, he was a lieutenant on various ships. He also fought with Lord Howe at Gibraltar in 1782.Between 1783 and 1787, Bligh was a captain in the Merchant Service.WEB, Biography of William Bligh, Captain of the HMS Bounty,weblink ThoughtCo, 18 April 2023, Like many lieutenants, he would have found full-pay employment in the Navy; however, commissions were hard to obtain with the fleet largely demobilised at the end of the War with France when that country was allied with the North American rebelling colonies in the War of American Independence (1775–1783). In 1787, Bligh was selected as commander of His Majesty's Armed Transport Bounty. He rose eventually to the rank of vice admiral in the Royal Navy.

Naval career

William Bligh's naval career involved various appointments and assignments. He first rose to prominence as Master of Resolution, under the command of Captain James Cook. Bligh received praise from Cook during what would be the latter's final voyage. Bligh served on three of the same ships on which Fletcher Christian also served simultaneously in his naval career.{|class="wikitable"!Date!Rank!Ship (number of guns)Ship's boy and captain's servant>Monmouth6}} (64)Able seaman (rank)>Able seaman rowspan="2" |HMS Hunter (10)MidshipmanCrescent6}} (28)HMS Ranger|Master's mateMaster (naval)>Resolution6}} (12)French frigate Belle Poule (1766)>HMS Belle PouleLieutenant{{HMS1775|6}} (74)Princess Amelia6}} (80)Cambridge6}} (80)Joins merchant service|Merchant vessel Lynx|Merchant vessel BritanniaReturns to Royal NavyCommanding lieutenantHM Armed Vessel BountyCommander>HMS Falcon (1782)>HM Brig-sloop Falcon (14)Captain (naval)>Medea6}} (28) (for rank only)Providence6}} (28)Calcutta6}} (24)Director6}} (64)Glatton6}} (56)Monarch6}} (74)Irresistible6}} (74) Peace of AmiensWarrior6}} (74)Appointed Governor of New South WalesPorpoise6}} (12), voyage to New South WalesGovernor of New South WalesCommodore (Royal Navy)>CommodoreHMS Porpoise, TasmaniaHindostan6}} (50), returning to England. Appointed Rear-Admiral of the Blue (backdated to 31 July 1810) Appointed Rear-Admiral of the White Appointed Rear-Admiral of the Red Appointed Vice-Admiral of the BlueIn the early 1780s, while in the merchant service, Bligh became acquainted with a young man named Fletcher Christian (1764–1793), who was eager to learn navigation from him. Bligh took Christian under his wing, and the two became friends.WEB, Fletcher Christian,weblink The Lake District, 17 April 2023,

Voyage of Bounty

The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel HMAV Bounty occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789.WEB, William Bligh,weblink Royal Museums Greenwich, 17 April 2023, Led by Master's Mate / Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, disaffected crewmen seized control of the ship, and set the then Lieutenant Bligh, who was the ship's captain, and 18 loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island. Meanwhile, Bligh completed a voyage of more than {{convert|3,500|nmi|km mi|abbr=off}} to the west in the launch to reach safety north of Australia in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice.WEB, Mutiny on the Bounty,weblink Royal Museums Greenwich, 17 April 2023,

First breadfruit voyage

In 1787, Lieutenant Bligh, as he then was, took command of HMAV Bounty. In order to win a premium offered by the Royal Society, he first sailed to Tahiti to obtain breadfruit trees, then set course east across the South Pacific for South America and the Cape Horn and eventually to the Caribbean Sea, where breadfruit was wanted for experiments to see whether it would be a successful food crop for enslaved Africans on British colonial plantations in the West Indies islands.WEB, William Bligh,weblink Britannica, 17 April 2023, According to one modern researcher, the notion that breadfruit had to be collected from Tahiti was intentionally misleading. Tahiti was merely one of many places where the esteemed seedless breadfruit could be found. The real reason for choosing Tahiti has its roots in the territorial contention that existed then between France and Great Britain at the time.Lorbach, Karl Ernst Alwyn. 'Conspiracy on the Bounty: Bligh's Convenient Mutiny'. 2012, printed University of Queensland, hardcover/Kindle, 366 pages, {{ISBN|978-0-9806914-1-2}}. [see Appendix Four — An Afterword on Banks and his Breadfruit, pp. 309–314]. Bounty never reached the Caribbean, as mutiny broke out on board shortly after the ship left Tahiti.The voyage to Tahiti was difficult. After trying unsuccessfully for a month to go west by rounding South America and Cape Horn, Bounty was finally defeated by the notoriously stormy weather and opposite winds and forced to take the longer way to the east around the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas). That delay caused a further delay in Tahiti, as Bligh had to wait five months for the breadfruit plants to mature sufficiently to be potted in soil and transported. Bounty departed Tahiti heading west in April 1789.WEB, The Voyage of HMAV Bounty,weblink Pacific Union College, 17 April 2023,

Mutiny

File:Mutiny HMS Bounty.jpg|thumb|The mutineers turning Lt Bligh and some of the officers and crew adrift from His Majesty's Ship {{HMS|Bounty||6}}. By Robert Dodd ]]Because the vessel was rated only as a cutter, Bounty had no commissioned officers other than Bligh (who was then only a lieutenant), a very small crew, and no Royal Marines to provide protection from hostile natives during stops or to enforce security on board ship. To allow longer uninterrupted sleep, Bligh divided his crew into three watches instead of two, placing his protégé Fletcher Christian—rated as a Master's Mate—in charge of one of the watches. The mutiny, which took place on 28 April 1789 during the return voyage, was led by Christian and supported by eighteen of the crew.WEB, Mutiny of the Bounty,weblink Discover Collections, State Library of NSW, 12 December 2013, They had seized firearms during Christian's night watch and surprised and bound Bligh in his cabin.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}(File:Wr Bligh Journal fl3156809 a286171.jpg|thumb|upright=1.18|Account of arrival at Timor, 14 June 1789. Log of the Proceedings of His Majesty's Ship Bounty, 1789, bound manuscript, Safe 1 / 47) Despite being in the majority, none of the loyalists put up a significant struggle once they saw Bligh bound, and the ship was taken over without bloodshed. The mutineers provided Bligh and eighteen loyal crewmen a {{convert|23|ft|0|adj=mid}} launch (so heavily loaded that the gunwales were only a few inches above the water). They were allowed four cutlasses, food and water for perhaps a week, a quadrant and a compass, but no charts, or marine chronometer. The gunner William Peckover, brought his pocket watch which was used to regulate time. Most of these instruments were obtained by the clerk, Mr Samuel, who acted with great calm and resolution, despite threats from the mutineers. The launch could not hold all the loyal crew members, so four were detained on Bounty for their useful skills; they were later released in Tahiti.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}Tahiti was upwind from Bligh's initial position, and was the obvious destination of the mutineers. Many of the loyalists claimed to have heard the mutineers cry "Huzzah for Otaheite!" as Bounty pulled away. Timor was the nearest European colonial outpost in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia), {{convert|3618|nmi|abbr=on}} away. Bligh and his crew first made for Tofua, only a few leagues distant, to obtain supplies. However, they were attacked by hostile natives and John Norton, a quartermaster, was killed."The Bounty" by Caroline Alexander. Fleeing from Tofua, Bligh did not dare to stop at the next islands to the west (the Fiji islands), as he had only a pair of cutlasses for defence and expected hostile receptions. He did however keep a log entitled "Log of the Proceedings of His Majesty's Ship Bounty Lieut. Wm Bligh Commander from Otaheite towards Jamaica" which he used to record events from 5 April 1789 to 13 March 1790.ARCHIVE, William, Bligh, Log of the Proceedings of His Majestys Ship Bounty Lieut. Wm Bligh Commander from Otaheite towards Jamaica, signed `Wm Bligh', Bound Manuscript, 13 March 1790, William Bligh – Papers relating to HMS Bounty, 1787–1794, Safe 1 / 47, Item 2, William Bligh – Papers, State Library of New South Wales, State Library of NSW, NSW, Au, none, He also made use of a small notebook to sketch a rough map of his discoveries.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}File:Mutineers of the Bounty by Jules Verne, illustration by Leon Bennett.jpg|thumb|upright=1.18|Original illustration by S. Drée from French author Jules Verne's story The Mutineers of the BountyThe Mutineers of the BountyBligh had confidence in his navigational skills, which he had perfected under the instruction of Captain James Cook. His first responsibility was to bring his men to safety. Thus, he undertook the seemingly impossible {{convert|3618|nmi|adj=on}} voyage to Timor, the nearest European settlement. Bligh succeeded in reaching Timor after a 47-day voyage, the only casualty being the crewman killed on Tofua.WEB, Bounty's Launch,weblink Pacific Union College, 17 April 2023, From 4 May until 29 May, when they reached the Great Barrier Reef north of Australia, the 18 men lived on {{convert|1/12|lb|g|abbr=off|-1}} of bread per day. The weather was often stormy, and they were in constant fear of foundering due to the boat's heavily laden condition. On 29 May they landed on a small island off the coast of Australia, which they named Restoration Island, 29 May 1660 being the date of the restoration of the English monarchy after the English Civil War.WEB, Queensland Places – Restoration,weblink State Library of Queensland, 6 November 2015, 17 April 2023, Strains were showing within the party; following a heated disagreement with Purcell, Bligh grabbed a cutlass and challenged the carpenter to fight. Fryer told Cole to arrest their captain but backed down after Bligh threatened to kill him if he interfered. Fryer later said Bligh "was as tyrannical in his temper in the boat as in the ship." Over the next week or more they island-hopped north along the Great Barrier reef—while Bligh, cartographer as always, sketched maps of the coast. Early in June they passed through the Endeavour Strait and sailed again on the open sea until they reached Coupang, a settlement on Timor, on 14 June 1789. Despite the hardships he and his men had endured, upon reaching Kupang Bligh maintained his stubborn adherence to Navy protocol, insisting that a makeshift Union Jack be made up and hoisted and that Fryer remain aboard the launch to guard her.WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AFTER THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY?", {{smallcaps|Today I Found Out Blog}} (3 April 2024). Rubber erasers have been in use since approximately 1770. See {{smallcaps|Joseph Priestley, A Familiar Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Perspective}} xv n. (1769). Three of the men who survived this arduous voyage with him were so weak that they soon died of sickness, possibly malaria, in the pestilential Dutch East Indies port of Batavia, the present-day Indonesian capital of Jakarta, as they waited for transport to Britain.{{sfn|Toohey|2000}} Two others died on the way to England.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Possible causes of the mutiny

The reasons behind the mutiny are still debated; some sources report that Bligh was a tyrant whose abuse of the crew led them to feel that they had no choice but to take over the ship.WEB, Johnson, Ben, Mutiny on the Bounty,weblink Historic UK, 17 April 2023, Other sources argue that Bligh was no worse (and in many cases gentler) than the average captain and naval officer of the era.WEB, Righting a historic wrong: the real story of the mutiny on the Bounty,weblink RadioTimes, 17 April 2023, They also argue that the crew—inexperienced and unused to the rigours of the sea—were corrupted by the freedom, idleness and sexual licence of their five months in Tahiti, finding themselves unwilling to return to the "Jack Tar's" life of an ordinary seaman. This view holds that most of the men supported Christian's prideful personal vendetta against Bligh out of a misguided hope that their new captain would return them to Tahiti to live their lives "hedonistically" and in peace, free from Bligh's acid tongue and strict discipline.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}The mutiny is made more mysterious by the friendship of Christian and Bligh, which dates back to Bligh's days in the merchant service. Christian was well acquainted with the Bligh family. As Bligh was being set adrift, he appealed to this friendship, saying "you have dandled my children upon your knee". According to Bligh, Christian "appeared disturbed" and replied, "That,—Captain Bligh,—that is the thing;——I am in hell—I am in hell".{{sfn|Bligh|1790}}Bounty{{'}}s log shows that Bligh was relatively sparing in his punishments. He scolded when other captains would have whipped, and whipped when other captains would have hanged.WEB, THE TRUE FACE OF CAPTAIN BLIGH,weblink Welcome Tahiti, 18 April 2023, He was an educated man, deeply interested in science, convinced that good diet and sanitation were necessary for the welfare of his crew. He took a great interest in his crew's exercise, was very careful about the quality of their food and insisted upon the Bounty being kept very clean.WEB, CAPTAIN COOK AND CAPTAIN BLIGH,weblink Victoria University of Wellington, 18 April 2023, The modern historian John Beaglehole has described the major flaw in this otherwise enlightened naval officer: "[Bligh made] dogmatic judgements which he felt himself entitled to make; he saw fools about him too easily … thin-skinned vanity was his curse through life … [Bligh] never learnt that you do not make friends of men by insulting them."{{sfn|Beaglehole|1974|p=498}} Bligh was also capable of holding intense grudges against those he thought had betrayed him, such as Midshipman Peter Heywood and ship's gunner William Peckover; in regard to Heywood, Bligh was convinced that the young man was as guilty as Christian. Bligh's first detailed comments on the mutiny are in a letter to his wife Betsy,Bligh letter of 1789 in which he names Heywood (a mere boy not yet 16) as "one of the ringleaders", adding: "I have now reason to curse the day I ever knew a Christian or a Heywood or indeed a Manks{{sic}} man."Alexander, p. 152. Natives of the Isle of Man are known as "Manxmen". Bligh's later official account to the Admiralty lists Heywood with Christian, Edward Young and George Stewart as the mutiny's leaders, describing Heywood as a young man of abilities for whom he had felt a particular regard.Bligh, Ch. 13. To the Heywood family, Bligh wrote: "His baseness is beyond all description."Alexander, p. 168. Peckover applied for a position as gunner on HMS Providence (the second breadfruit expedition to Tahiti) but was refused by Bligh. In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, dated 17 July 1791 (two weeks before departure), Bligh wrote:{{sfn|Kennedy|1978|p=235}}Should Peckover my late Gunner ever trouble you to render him further services I shall esteem it a favour if you will tell him I informed you he was a vicious and worthless fellow – He applied to me to render him service & wanted to be appointed Gunner of the Providence but as I had determined never to suffer an officer who was with me in the Bounty to sail with again, it was for the cause I did not apply for him.Bligh's refusal to appoint Peckover was partly due to Edward Christian's polemic testimony against Bligh in an effort to clear his brother's name.{{sfn|Kennedy|1978|p=235}} Christian states in his appendix:{{sfn|Kennedy|1978|p=235}}WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20101122223317weblink">weblink dead, 22 November 2010, The Appendix, Minutes of Bounty Court-Martial, 22 November 2010, 28 April 2020, In the evidence of Mr. Peckover and Mr. Fryer, it is proved that Mr. Nelson the botanist said, upon hearing the commencement of the mutiny, "We know whose fault this is, or who is to blame, Mr. Fryer, what have we brought upon ourselves?" In addition to this, it ought to be known that Mr. Nelson, in conversation afterwards with an officer (Peckover) at Timor, who was speaking of returning with Captain Bligh if he got another ship, observed, "I am surprized that you should think of going a second time with [Bligh] (using a term of abuse) who has been the cause of all our losses."Popular fiction often confuses Bligh with Edward Edwards of {{HMS|Pandora|1779|6}}, who was sent on the Royal Navy's expedition to the South Pacific to find the mutineers and bring them to trial. Edwards is often made out to be the cruel man that Hollywood has portrayed. The 14 men from Bounty who were captured by Edwards's men were confined in a cramped 18′ × 11′ × 5′8″ wooden cell on Pandora{{'}}s quarterdeck. Yet, when Pandora ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, three prisoners were immediately let out of the prison cell to help at the pumps. Finally, Captain Edwards gave orders to release the other 11 prisoners, to which end Joseph Hodges, the armourer's mate, went into the cell to remove the prisoners' irons. Unfortunately, before he could finish the job, the ship sank. Four of the prisoners and 31 of the crew died during the sinking. More prisoners would likely have perished, had not William Moulter, a bosun's mate, unlocked their cages before jumping off the sinking vessel.{{Citation |url=http://www.southbank.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Histories+of+Queensland/Transport+Maritime+History/~/media/4AC2615C4B2645F992EF72EB80A5BC99.pdf |title=The Pandora Story |publisher=Queensland Museum |date=14 August 2010 |first=Stephen |last=Wilson}}

Aftermath

In October 1790, Bligh was honourably acquitted at the court-martial inquiring into the loss of Bounty. Shortly thereafter, he published A Narrative of the Mutiny on board His Majesty's Ship "Bounty"; And the Subsequent Voyage of Part of the Crew, In the Ship's Boat, from Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch Settlement in the East Indies. Of the 10 surviving prisoners eventually brought home in spite of Pandora's loss, four were acquitted, owing to Bligh's testimony that they were non-mutineers that Bligh was obliged to leave on Bounty because of lack of space in the launch. Two others were convicted because, while not participating in the mutiny, they were passive and did not resist. They subsequently received royal pardons. One was convicted but excused on a technicality. The remaining three were convicted and hanged.WEB, The Court-Martial of the Bounty Mutineers: An Account,weblink Famous Trials, 17 April 2023,

Comparative travels of Bounty and the small boat after mutiny:{{Citation |url=http://pgosse.chez.com/maquette/story.htm |title=Bounty Story |date=19 October 2005 |first=Philip |last=Gosse}}

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Travel up to the mutiny (red):

1. Tasmania, Adventure Bay (21 August 1788) 2. first arrival at Tahiti (26 October 1788) 3. departure for the Caribbean (4 April 1789) 4. Palmerston 5. Tofua 6. 28 April 1789: mutiny