A note on sources

More than 250 years have passed since William Bligh was born; and only a couple of decades less since the infamous mutiny happened aboard Bounty. Had it not been for that single event the man might simply have been recognised in history as one of the many great naval commanders of his day, especially in battle. The mutiny changed all that: it made him famous, even in his day, and forever controversial – a maritime hero to some, a tyrannical despot to others. Since then, stories about Bligh, particularly ones based around the mutiny, have escalated in drama and proportion with the passing of years and the help of four Hollywood movies. Recently, however, thanks to the internet, the cannon of literature either written by or inspired by Bligh is now at our fingertips, and there is an abundance of information to be found: some factual, some fanciful, some just plain wrong.

In researching Bligh I have cruised through many books, some dedicated to his life, others to events with which he has been involved. I have also trawled through countless websites – from the online collections of institutions such as the National Maritime Museum in the United Kingdom to those compiled by Bligh and Bounty enthusiasts, in search of facts, figures and fresh information. It’s been a marathon.

Here now, to the best of my ability, I recognise as many as possible of those sources used in creating this book and that you too may choose to explore and read. My apologies to anyone I may have overlooked or omitted. The publisher would be pleased to correct any omissions or errors of fact in subsequent printings.

Prologue

We open with Bligh and his loyalists on the beach on the island of Tofua confronted by almost certain death. To set the scene I flew to Tofua via Google Earth (my airline of choice for many situations and locations dealt with in this book), and went to the many websites with images and information relating to Tofua to get a better appreciation of the island’s form and what the castaways might have experienced. Much of the background and detail here was gleaned from The Life of Vice-Admiral William Bligh RNFRS (A&R, 1931), a masterwork written by prolific Australian academic and biographer of William Bligh, George Mackaness. This award-winning book is almost encyclopaedic in its presentation of information about Bligh. George Mackaness also published many additional papers and historical monographs on Bligh (and his correspondence) that can be found at the State Library of NSW. Kenneth S. Allen’s excellent biography of Bligh, That Bounty Bastard (Robert Hale and Company, 1976), inspired much colour for this chapter and others. There was no better site for detail and accessing the primary sources of the mutiny and subsequent courts martial than www.fatefulvoyage.com which informed this chapter and many others across the book. Bligh’s own two works on his Bounty adventure: his Narrative of the Mutiny on Board HMS Bounty and the Subsequent Voyage of Part of the Crew in the Ship’s Boat and A Voyage to the South Sea were invaluable. The narrative written by Bounty mutineer, James Morrison, provided much colour, and an intriguing alternative view.

Chapters One and Two

The debate about Bligh’s birthplace will go on forever, but here I am backing the detailed research done by Mackaness; I believe it was Plymouth, a belief I reinforced through contact with the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office in England. And while in England, the National Museum of the Royal Navy, UK, and the National Archives, UK, assisted with details of HMS Monmouth and HMS Hunter.

The Australian National University’s website, www.adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs, was a consistent source of excellent biographies and fact checking for me on Banks and the many significant personalities across the book.

Once Bligh reappeared in navy ranks and eventually went aboard HMS Resolution to sail as master under Captain Cook, Richard Hough’s book, Captain James Cook – A Biography (Hodder & Stoughton, 1994), was of immeasurable help for detail, right through to Cook’s death, the search for the Northwest Passage and Resolution’s long voyage home where Bligh was navigator. Hough’s book also reveals that the Royal Navy’s Surgeon-Admiral from 1972-74, Sir James Watt, considered Cook’s reported symptoms when he was ill in Tahiti and suggested he was suffering from a parasitic infection of the lower intestine. Excerpts from Cook’s journals, and the men who sailed with him (including Gilbert and Samwell) can be found at captaincooksociety.com and across the web including John Robson’s excellent website The Men Who Sailed with Cook at http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/jcr/~cookmen1.html. The originals for Royal Navy Captains and Masters logs of this period are held by The National Archives at Kew and a collection of Lieutenant’s logs at the national maritime museum for more information refer to www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/library/research-guides/the-royal-navy/research-guide-b7-the-royal-navy-ship-records.

The ABC’s terrific interactive graphic novel provides a wonderful overview of Bligh’s career for younger readers: http://www.abc.net.au/bligh/.

Chapter Three

Just when it was that William Bligh met his wife-to-be, Elizabeth Betham, in Douglas on the Isle of Man is the subject of conjecture across many books and websites, and despite extensive efforts on my part, I’m no closer to an answer. Elizabeth Betham’s uncle, Duncan Campbell, who became another mentor and lifelong associate of Bligh’s, makes his first appearance in this chapter. Much of the background information on Campbell and his extensive business activities can be traced across the web and the fascinating work of ‘The Blackheath Connection’ at www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/jamaica.htm.

This chapter is Bligh’s first battle action – he smells the smoke of cannon fire at the Battle of Dogger Bank and is there for the Siege of Gibraltar. Mackaness, as a result of his exhaustive research, again provided fine detail, while cross-checking information from the numerous sites on the web provided the platform for these paragraphs.

It was difficult to find any information of much worth that could be applied to the era where Bligh was working in the merchant service, sailing across the Atlantic to the West Indies aboard ships owned by Duncan Campbell in the shadow of the notorious triangular trade. This was the first time he sailed with Fletcher Christian, the perpetrator of the mutiny. As to whether Bligh’s service in the West Indies also saw him as the captain of any of the many slave ships of the Atlantic slave trade I could not ascertain, but I suspect there is a story to be found here. There was an intriguing reference in a Mackaness monograph – Fresh light on Bligh: being some unpublished correspondence of Captain William Bligh, R.N., and Lieutenant Francis Godolphin Bond, R.N., with Lieutenant Bond’s manuscript notes made on voyage of H.M.S. Providence, 1791–1795, edited with an introduction, notes and commentary by George Mackaness – which could suggest that he may have. Thomas Bond makes a longish reference to William Bligh in a letter to a relative regarding Bligh’s kindness to his son (also Thomas, and brother of Francis Godolphin Bond of Providence). The letter relates that William Bligh had told him he was tired of being a ‘negro driver’ and had long sacrificed his domestic comforts for the good of the service. Francis Godolphin Bond was a son of William Bligh’s half-sister Catherine. It might well be that the displeasure Bligh experienced working in the shadow of the Atlantic slave trade, and possibly as master of a slave ship (as this curious reference might indicate) compelled him to jump ship and return to his naval career with the Bounty mission, even though it meant an enormous reduction in salary: from £500 to just £50 per annum (salary as noted in Dening’s book).

Chapter Four

Lieutenant William Bligh is appointed captain of Bounty and commander of the breadfruit mission, but much to his disappointment he was not elevated in Royal Navy ranking to the actual title of captain. I found assistance for this section in David Divine’s excellent read, Six Great Sailors (Hamish Hamilton, 1955), which gives a slightly different perspective on the life of Bligh. Snippets of other information from this publication surface elsewhere in this book. The website www.bountygenealogy.com/lamb.php provided some of the details of the men Bligh accepted as crew for Bounty, and www.findagrave.com is fascinating.

An interesting search came with the need for information on Larcum Kendall’s No. 2 timepiece, which was aboard Bounty and used for navigation purposes. The website www.sullacrestadellonda.it/strumenti/strumenti_nautici_crono_en.htm gave the answers. Here also I must recognise another outstanding publication written by a man of considerable note in the world of seafaring: Ship – 5,000 Years of Maritime Adventure, by Brian Lavery, Curator Emeritus of Naval History at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. The words and images this book contains helped set many scenes in Bligh. It’s a great read. My personal experience comes into play in this chapter as well: having raced yachts on the Solent and experienced its fickle winds and fearsome tides, I knew exactly the frustration Bligh was facing in trying to clear the Isle of Wight after weighing anchor and getting under sail from Spithead.

Chapters Five and Six

I am in my element here as Bligh exits the English Channel, enters the Atlantic and turns south. Having raced and cruised the English Channel, I could see Bounty leaving the coast in her wake and, like them, I have felt the frustration of Doldrum-like conditions on too many occasions. I know what it’s like listening to the slatting of the sails while you desperately try to harness the slightest puff of wind and get moving. My writings about two Volvo round-the-world races, where competitors provided me with excellent detail relating to sailing south in the Atlantic to Cape Town, also helped, as did my own time in Cape Town and on the water there.

When it came to Cape Horn I turned my mind back to wonderfully relaxed conversations I had over glasses of red wine with my special, lifelong friend, Kay Cottee – the first woman to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world. We talked at length about two heinous storms she confronted, one south of the Cape of Good Hope, and another that emerged as she neared the sailor’s nemesis, Cape Horn. In both storms Kay was running with them; at Cape Horn, Bligh was trying to smash his way west against the storm in a ship that would not sail any closer than 70 degrees to the wind direction, and which made considerable leeway. My own touch came through my sailing in the Atlantic, especially when we had to endure a savage Force 10 storm while delivering a small yacht to Bermuda. That was memorable!

I could also see the weather and feel the loads on the ship when Bounty was deep in the Southern Ocean; and having enjoyed downwind rollercoaster rides on the south-east trade winds in the South Pacific, I knew exactly what Bligh and his crew were feeling as they approached Tahiti. George Mackaness, www.fatefulvoyage.com and Google Earth were all valuable in crafting these chapters, as was Six Great Sailors.

I would like to note the insightful paper of John F. Brock, Cook-Bligh-Flinders-King: the quadrilogy of master mariners, given at the Australian Museum, Australian Science History Club, Sydney, September 2005. It provided an insightful synthesis of the links between Cook, Bligh and Flinders in particular and their shared surveying legacy.

Chapters Seven and Eight

These two chapters deal with the incident that brought Bligh both fame and infamy – the mutiny and Bounty. The build-up to the revolt – from the moment Bounty sails from Matavai Bay until the plotters overrun the ship at dawn on 28 April 1789, is built around Bounty’s log, Mackaness’ landmark research, and a cross section of websites too numerous to mention. Just type Bounty into Google and you will see what I mean. And, of course, Google Earth gave me a satellite’s eye view of the scene as the ships circled and moved across the Pacific. Again, www.fatefulvoyage.com provides excellent detail and maps, especially through Bligh’s narrative.

With the mutiny complete and Bligh and his eighteen supporters callously cast adrift, I could relate to the dilemmas they faced in such a small and overloaded boat. I started my sailing career as a bailer boy in small, undecked skiffs on Sydney Harbour, and they were extremely difficult to keep upright, even in moderate winds. But for Bligh and his men, rowing that heavy launch over great distances would be as demanding as sailing it in a breeze. As I wrote and researched this book, my old sailing mate, Don McIntyre, was reliving Bligh’s nightmare by attempting to sail the same voyage under similar conditions: no charts, no toilet paper, not enough food or water, in a traditional eighteenth-century open-timber-whale-boat. For more information see www.bountyboat.com/.

Chapters Nine and Ten

These chapters detail one of the greatest feats of open-ocean navigation, seamanship and survival in maritime history – eighteen men in a twenty-three-foot open boat surviving a 3,600 nautical mile passage over forty-seven days. I’ve sailed in these waters – from Sydney to Noumea, twice, through the northern waters of the Great Barrier Reef, in Fiji and the New Hebrides, Torres Strait and to the west – so I can relate to the undertaking. But, what brought home to me the enormity of this ultimate test of survival was to spend time appreciating the replica of the Bounty launch that is on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. I was in awe of how crowded it must have been for the men, how little freeboard the launch would have had, and how difficult it must have been to keep her afloat in a gale and big seas. Their survival was little short of a miracle. These two chapters were based on the log from Bounty, Bligh’s narrative after the odyssey, the notes he kept during the launch voyage, and supported by visits to www.fatefulvoyage.com and many other related websites.

Chapters Twelve and Thirteen

Back with his family on home turf and facing a court martial (a Royal Navy procedure for any captain who loses his ship, even in a mutiny) we follow Bligh on the voyage and subsequent wreck of HMS Pandora, which was sent to search for Bounty and return the mutineers home to face justice. Bounty does come back onto the scene, but still in the hands of Fletcher Christian and a few of his faithful mutineers: they were on their way to find Pitcairn Island, and once there the ship was scuttled.

Having observed the Great Barrier Reef from air and sea, and having been through some of its narrow channels, it is easy to understand the dangers this coral bastion presented to vessels in Bligh’s era when navigation was so basic and the actual whereabouts of the reef was known more by ‘guestimation’ than fact. For Bligh, who made a cautious and calculated approach, there was still an element of luck in finding what is now Bligh’s Boat Entrance, but the wreck of Pandora is almost inexcusable.

The challenge of this book was always to keep the focus on Bligh, the mariner and Royal Navy man, so I regrettably had to make many decisions to not give extensive detail on some moments (such as the Pandora story) as they have all been well served by dedicated publications. Mackaness’ book again provided much of the thread for these chapters, but it was the world wide web where the broadest information was found.

Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen

The voyage of HMS Providence fills these two chapters. Once again Bligh stopped at Adventure Bay, on Tasmania’s Storm Bay, and this time he surveyed the region. Bligh was taken by the stunning natural beauty of this area, and I know why: you cross Storm Bay from Tasman Island to the entrance of the Derwent River when sailing to the finish of the Sydney to Hobart race, and I can say from my own experience in that race, Storm Bay is the highlight after departing Sydney. This part of the world remains almost untouched to this day, and the impressive stone columns, the ‘organ pipes’ at Cape Raoul, are now known the world over. Only the tall white lighthouse adorning the peak of Tasman Island is the obvious modern-day addition to the scene. After Bligh left Tahiti he sailed into one of my favourite parts of the world – the waters and islands of Fiji – which were somewhat appropriately recognised then as Bligh’s Islands, because of the extent of his exploration there.

Then came Bligh’s great challenge – finding and fighting his way through Torres Strait. Having sailed through the strait, and having stood on the summit of Thursday Island – from where you can see just a few of the hazards he faced – you recognise what a great navigator and explorer he was. It was the situation for me in relating to Providence’s arrival in Jamaica with her prized cargo of breadfruit plants. Having competed in the Miami to Montego Bay Race and sailed through the Bermuda Triangle from the Bahamas to Bermuda, one comes away with great respect for the masters and crews of the square-rigged ships that clawed their way through the myriad islands you find there.

The online edition of the Australian Dictionary of Biography was again valuable when it came to seeking accurate detail of individuals: this time it was Flinders. The usual sources again came to the fore, and an entertaining chat with Captain Welwyn Gamble, of Australian Reef Pilots, regarding the northern waters of Queensland and Torres Strait, was enlightening. Additional insight into the family background of the mutineers came through www.bountygenealogy.com.

Chapters Sixteen, Seventeen and Eighteen

Bligh was in the thick of the action at two great battles – Camperdown and Copenhagen, the latter being where he anchored his ship, Glatton, immediately astern of Nelson’s flagship, Elephant, and blasted the powerful Danish fleet into submission in what was a monumental encounter. It was a similar story at Camperdown. In another ships-of-the-line confrontation, this time against the Dutch, the British either sank their opponent’s ships, sent them running, or had them surrender. On each occasion Bligh returned home a proud man with his reputation restored, and rightly so. The offer of the role of Governor of New South Wales was to follow as a consequence. Both Mackaness and Lavery’s books were of value in establishing the scenes for these chapters, and there was a plethora of websites to be scoured for information, including www.royalnavalmuseum.org and www.historyofwar.org, and to get the complete feeling of what these brave men and their crews were exposed to, you needed to go no further than Google images and the various online collections where many of the images for this book were sourced, of particular note is the National Maritime Museum at www.nmm.ac.uk. Here, as in other chapters, www.ageofnelson.org helped when tracking down basic details of ships. The many letters between Bligh and Banks held by the State Library of New South Wales were of exceptional benefit in crafting these chapters.

Epilogue

Bligh’s posting to New South Wales would be as tumultuous, testing and emotional as almost any other period in his life. It’s a magnificent story in itself, but I have chosen not to cover this period in detail as it is a tangent in the life of a master mariner, and not the intention of my book. The State Library of NSW and its collection was a solid source of information. In particular, the book, Politics and Power: Bligh’s Sydney Rebellion 1808 by Paul Brunton, produced for the jointly curated State Library and the Museum of Sydney exhibition of this period, proved invaluable for background and detail of Bligh’s impact on the colony. Anne-Marree Whitaker’s chapter on Bligh in The Governors of New South Wales: 1788–2010 edited by David Clune and Ken Turner (Federation Press) – was an insightful overview of Bligh’s NSW stint and the earlier governors Bligh replaced. For the pen sketch biographies of John Macarthur and his cohorts I relied upon the www.adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs for the necessary information. The wonderful quote of an enraged Bligh with Macarthur is from Proceedings of a General court-martial … for the trial of … Geo Johnston (Sherwood, Neely and Jones, London, 1811) and quoted from the State Library’s Politics and Power.

The lovely story of old Admiral Bligh comes from Cornish Worthies, Walter, Hawken and Tregallas – www.bibliolife.com.

I have unashamedly taken Bligh’s side in the complex Rum Rebellion in my brief summary of Bligh’s NSW stint. The works of Michael Duffy, Man of Honour: John Macarthur, Sydney, Macmillan Australia, 2003; H.V. Evatt, Rum Rebellion: A Study of the Overthrow of Governor Bligh, 1943; and Ross Fitzgerald, and Mark Hearn, Bligh, Macarthur and the Rum Rebellion, 1988; as well as Paul Brunton’s many lectures and papers on the topic, are the authoritative voices on this period and I would encourage you to discover their works.

A special note on the Bligh Collection held by the State Library of New South Wales

Any author writing and researching a work on Australian history relies greatly on the extraordinary collection of the Mitchell and Dixson Libraries at the State Library of New South Wales to create and research their story. I am no different, and the State Library’s collection deserves particular recognition. It holds the most comprehensive collection of books, manuscripts, maps and pictures by and relating to William Bligh in the world. Bligh’s personal papers, logbooks and journals, letters, commissions, maps, portrait, telescope and the personal papers of his wife, Elizabeth, were acquired throughout the twentieth century from a number of Bligh’s descendants beginning in 1902 with a gift from his grandson, William Russell Bligh, which included the Bounty logbook and journal, 1787 – 1789. The Library acquires all published books, in any language, relating to William Bligh, the Bounty mutiny, and Bligh’s governorship of New South Wales. It also collects associated manuscripts and pictures such as the journal of James Morrison, 1787 – 1792; the journal and sketchbook of George Tobin, 1791 – 1793 (whose original artwork provided the endpapers for this book); and pictorial works such as portraits of Mary Putland (née Bligh).

The Mitchell and Dixson collections at the Library also hold an extensive collection of the papers of Sir Joseph Banks. These amount to approximately 10,000 manuscript pages and include correspondence – principally letters received – but also reports, invoices and accounts, journals, plus a small quantity of maps, charts and watercolours. Many of the letters quoted across the book are held in the Library’s collection, and in the chapters relating to Bligh’s years spent in the North Sea I relied on the online collection with Bligh’s correspondence to Banks (series 58) mainly letters received by Banks from William Bligh while commander of HM Ships Calcutta, Director, Glatton, Irresistible and Warrior. Including a significant letter received by Banks from Elizabeth Bligh in 1805.

Much of the State Library’s excellent collection is accessible online and I found their extensive provenance notes that accompany the collections a splendid source of additional detail on the stories behind Bligh’s letters, work, images and personal objects. Detailed descriptions of this collection may be found at www.sl.nsw.gov.au. Members of the Library can also access online the astonishing 17th–18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, which contains one million newspaper pages with titles from London, the British Isles and colonies. Included in the collection are newspapers, news-books, Acts of Parliament, addresses, broadsides, pamphlets and proclamations. I am grateful for the picture research of Linda Brainwood in sourcing the images from the State Library Collection and accessing the Burney Collection.