Sailboat bounty release schedule and discussion. Sailboat "Bounty" - lower deck, power frame
November 28 at Discovery Channel The show "Mutiny" began airing, in which nine people set off into the Pacific Ocean on a wooden longboat to repeat the feat of Captain William Bligh and his crew. Why the mutiny, why the longboat, and what kind of voyage did Captain Bligh make? And what does “Bounty” have to do with it, which most associate only with delicious chocolate bars that are eaten on the paradise islands? Let's find out. And brands will help us with this, as always.
William Bligh and H.M.S. Bounty. Pitcairn Island, 1940. Mi:4 Captain Bligh and the sailing ship "Bounty" are generally quite a popular topic in philately. I’m unlikely to be able to cover all the diversity in one post, but I’ll show you the most interesting brands, including those from my collection. And especially many stamps on this topic were issued by the tiny British colony of Pitcairn Island. Above is Bly’s first appearance on stamps and this was precisely the first issue of stamps for Pitcairn, published in 1940. We will now also find out why this is so.
Behind the breadfruit
In the second half of the 18th century, after the loss of the North American colonies, the British crown was faced with a serious problem of supplying food to the Caribbean colonies. There was simply nothing to feed the slaves on the sugar cane plantations; the import of products from Europe sharply worsened the economy of sugar production. And then the British remembered the breadfruit tree found on the islands of Oceania, the fruits of which were an inexhaustible source of cheap carbohydrates. And on the initiative of the President of the Royal scientific society Joseph Banks in February 1778, it was decided to organize an expedition for breadfruit seedlings.
Breadfruit fruits and seedlings. Aitutaki, 1989 Here are more breadfruits on a Tongan stamp:
Tonga, 1897 33-year-old Lieutenant William Bligh, an experienced sailor who had already been to Oceania with James Cook during his time, was appointed head of the expedition. According to rumors, it was Bligh who was responsible for Cook’s death, opening fire and finally angering the natives.
William Bligh, 1792 A small merchant sailing ship, Bethia, was chosen for the expedition, renamed Bounty. The ship was built in 1787 at the Betford shipyards. The ship was three-masted, with a displacement of 215 tons. Armament - 14 guns.
Model of the sailboat "Bounty" 
Pitcairn Island, 1969. Mi:100 
Solomon islands, 2009.Mi:1392 At the end of 1787, the Bounty headed for Tahiti. It was originally planned to go around South America, pass through the Drake Passage, go out into the Pacific Ocean and so reach Tahiti. But strong storms thwarted the plans and after a month of unsuccessful attempts, Bligh heads east. And so past Africa through Indian Ocean The Bounty finally reaches Tahiti after 10 months. Several islands were discovered along the way. Including famous islands Bounty, named after the ship. The islands are located approximately 650 kilometers southeast of New Zealand and, contrary to advertising, the climate there is quite harsh, in the warmest months the temperature barely rises above 11 degrees and the islands are inhabited not by beauties in bikinis, but by penguins and seals.
Bligh also discovered Aitutaki Atoll, part of the Cook Archipelago. For this reason, they are very fond of issuing stamps on Aitutaki. The Bounty Islands do not issue stamps, the penguins cannot prepare documents for joining the Universal Postal Union, and people do not live on the islands.
Aitutaki, 1974 
Aitutaki, 1989 In Tahiti
Due to delays in travel, the expedition arrived in Tahiti at the wrong time to dig up seedlings. We had to wait another 6 months for the sprouts to get stronger and be able to move long journey to the Caribbean. Bligh sent the team ashore. And here we must remember that at that time, mostly all rabble served in the navy, usually forcibly herded onto ships. Inhuman working and living conditions, crappy water and food, beatings and tyranny of commanders. And here - Paradise Island, food, beautiful and accessible women. The sailors lived the life of white masters that they could not even dream of before.
The situation is perfectly illustrated by a stamp from French Polynesia:
French polynesia, 2017
On April 4, 1789, the Bounty, loaded with almost 10 thousand breadfruit seedlings, sailed from Tahiti. After six months of wonderful life on the island, the return to the ship, of course, did not make the sailors happy. Three escaped immediately, but were found and flogged. Bly's harshness, the lack of water, which was saved for watering the seedlings, and, most importantly, the memories of six months of paradise tore the roof off the sailors. On April 28, a group of conspirators led by first mate Fletcher Christian broke into Bligh's cabin and arrested him.
William Bligh and Fletcher Christian. Aitutaki, 1989 Not far from the island of Tonga, Blay and 18 other sailors loyal to him were put into a longboat and released in all four directions. They only had a few rusty sabers as weapons. This is how artist Robert Dodd depicted this disturbing moment:
"Mutiny on the Bounty" by Robert Dodd The painting served as the basis for the design of the French Polynesia block issued for the 1989 philatelic exhibition in Paris:
French Polynesia, 1989 That same year, the same subject was used to issue a block of Tongan stamps:
Tonga, 1989 Well, earlier, in 1967, for stamps from the same Pitcairn:
Pitcairn Island, 1967. Mi:86 The exiles went to the nearest land - to Fiji, where, however, on one of the islands of the archipelago they were met quite unfriendly, one of the sailors was killed. But, apparently, in Fiji they don’t like to remember this, and a stamp in memory of Bligh was issued with a neutral inscription about exploring the islands. Although Bligh and his companions had no time for research at that time.
Fiji, 1970 Without trying to go anywhere else, Bligh and his now 17 companions rushed east. The only navigational tools he had were a watch and a cultist. After 3,618 miles (6,701 km) and 47 days, Bligh reached the Portuguese colony on Timor without losing a single man. It was a real miracle. On a small overcrowded longboat, the length of which barely exceeded 7 meters, without supplies, water, surrounded by hostile cannibal natives... Unfortunately, not everyone returned to England. Several sailors died from tropical diseases in the port of Batavia while waiting for passing transport.
Red arrow - Bounty route to Tahiti, green - Bligh's route after the mutiny, yellow - rebel route Image of the longboat on the Fiji stamp:
Longboat with "Bounty". Fiji, 1989 
Model of the longboat in which William Bligh made his epic journey. From the collection of the Royal maritime museum in London The fate of William Bly
Bligh himself returned to London in March 1790. He was tried - after all, he lost His Majesty's ship, but was acquitted. William Bligh's further career was no less bright - he served as a captain, fought under Nelson, and served as governor in Australia. But life seems to have taught him nothing. His character remained as bad as before. The Navy even gave him the nickname “that Bounty bastard.” He survived two more mutinies - in 1797 while serving in the navy and the Rum Riot while governor of Australia in 1808. Then Bligh forbade the payment of wages to local workers in rum and even confiscated a moonshine still from local bootleggers. For which he was deposed and actually spent 2 years under arrest.
And yes, he still obtained breadfruit seedlings during his campaign in 1791-93. Breadfruit has since been successfully grown in the Caribbean and is an important part of the local food crop. Here, for example, is a St. Vincent stamp dedicated to the successful delivery of seedlings to the island by Captain Bligh. The stamp no longer depicts the Bounty, but another sailing ship, the Providence.
St. Vincent, 1965 Here's another cute stamp that was issued in St. Vincent in 1994:
St. Vincent, 1994 Bligh died in London on December 6, 1817. A monument in the shape of a breadfruit was erected on his grave. The obituaries did not mention the fact of the mutiny on the Bounty.
William Bligh's grave. Pitcairn Island, 1967. Mi:87 The fate of the rebels and Pitcairn Island
The rebels, led by Fletcher Christian, returned to Tahiti. But it was impossible to stay there, since the first place to look for them would have been here, and after the mutiny they had only one way - to the yard. Having taken supplies from Tahiti, Fletcher tried to establish a colony on the neighboring island of Tubuai, but was received coldly by the local population, who for some reason were not so friendly. After pushing around for three months on Tabuai, the gang returned to Tahiti. 16 team members decided to stay here, hoping for chance. Fletcher and 8 other people, having loaded a new supply of food onto the Bounty, as well as 12 Tahitians and 6 Tahitians, set off to travel across the expanses Pacific Ocean looking for a quiet place. Finally, the uninhabited island of Pitcairn appeared on their horizon. The island itself was discovered in 1767 by the navigator Philip Carteret, who, however, made a mistake by as much as 350 km when he mapped the island. Therefore, the punitive expedition aimed at searching for the rebels did not find them.
The moment when the rebels discovered the island on the first Pitcairn issue stamp from 1940. Most likely there were no breadfruit seedlings on the ship; trees were already growing on Pitcairn.
Christian Fletcher. Pitcairn Island, 1940. Mi:2 And they decided to burn the Bounty. The bay where the ship was burned is now named after him, and at the bottom you can see stones from the ballast. This moment is captured on the Norfolk stamp:
Norfolk, ... Since then, Pitcairn has celebrated the so-called “Bounty Day,” when local youth from among the descendants of the rebels build a model of the ship and burn it at sea. There is even a series of Pitcairn stamps dedicated to this action:
The fate of those remaining in Tahiti was unenviable. They were found and sent to England for trial, and four died en route. Of the 10 surviving mutineers, four were acquitted thanks to Bligh's testimony (these were the people who did not have enough space on the longboat and had to stay on the Bounty). Two more were convicted of non-resistance to the rebellion, although they did not directly participate in it. Another was convicted, but not sentenced to death. Three were sentenced to the gallows.
"Bounty" in our minds is strongly associated with heavenly pleasure, freedom and peace. But few people know what the voyage of the sailing ship "Bounty" actually was like and how it ended.
The history of the voyage of the English warship "Bounty" for breadfruit seedlings, the vicissitudes of this dramatic voyage were not lost even among the turbulent events of the 18th century, rich in mutinies, geographical discoveries and other exciting adventures.
The British warship "Bounty" on April 3, 1789 (according to some sources, April 4), under the leadership of Captain Bligh, sailed from the shores of Tahiti towards the Caribbean archipelago with valuable cargo on board. Breadfruit seedlings, the fruits of which were supposed to feed slaves on the sugar cane plantations of English colonists on the islands of the West Indies, however, did not achieve their goal: a mutiny broke out on the ship, as a result of which not only the plants suffered.
As a result of this mutiny and subsequent events, a hitherto unknown island was discovered, novels were written, films were made, and thanks to the efforts of copywriters, the dramatic voyage of the Bounty to the southern seas is now tightly linked in the public consciousness with heavenly pleasure.
On Christmas Eve 1787, the three-masted schooner Bounty set sail from the English harbor of Portsmund. There have been rumors for a long time about where and why this ship is heading, but the course and official goal of the expedition were announced to the sailors already on the open sea. The ship had an exotic destination: not in New World, not to wild Africa, not to fabulous, but already familiar India, not to the shores of New Holland (Australia) and New Zealand - the path lay to the paradise island in South Seas, as the tropical region of the Pacific Ocean was then called.
The mission, indeed, was unique: the schooner of the British Royal Navy did not set off in search of new lands or to fight the natives, and not even for black slaves or untold treasures. The Bounty team had to reach the paradise island of Tahiti, find and deliver to England a miracle plant, with the help of which it was planned to carry out an economic revolution. The goal of the long journey was breadfruit seedlings.
At the end of the 18th century, as a result of the American War of Independence, the British Empire lost its richest North American colonies. The infringement of political ambitions is nothing compared to the economic defeat that English businessmen suffered. Of course, in Jamaica and St. Vincent there was still a good harvest of sugar cane, the sale of which brought decent income to businessmen and the state treasury, but... The fact is that this very cane was grown by black slaves from Africa, who were fed yams and bananas, and grain and bread flour for them were brought from the American continent.
The independence of the United States of America hit the British slave owners hard. Now Americans had to pay completely different money for grain or import it from Europe. Both were expensive and significantly reduced the income from the sale of everything that slaves grew on the plantations. The increased costs of maintaining slaves, to put it mildly, upset English businessmen. It was necessary to somehow save the situation - to look for cheap bread. It was then that they remembered that travelers who had visited Tahiti often described a certain “bread fruit”. These fruits grow on tree branches, have a pleasant sweet taste and are the main food for eight months of the year. local residents. The schooner "Bounty" set off for this manna from heaven.
The famous English traveler Captain Cook wrote that in Polynesia, in Tahiti, bread grows on trees. This was not a metaphor - it was about a plant from the mulberry family that produces nutritious and tasty fruits the size of a coconut. When the most advanced English planters from the West Indian Islands read Cook's travel notes, which included information about breadfruit, they realized that the philosopher's stone, at least on the scale of one plantation, had been found. A brilliant business idea dawned on their bright heads: to transport breadfruit seedlings from Tahiti and feed the slaves with its fruits, thus saving a lot of money on the purchase of real bread. According to estimates, the profit from each plantation should have doubled from this innovation.
The people who mastered the overseas colonies in those days were decisive and fearless, therefore, without fear of the wrath of their superiors, they sent a request to King George III of England to help spread breadfruit in the places of their settlements. The king was inspired by the needs of the colonists and issued an order to the Admiralty: to equip a ship to Tahiti to collect and deliver shoots of the amazing plant to the planters of the West Indies.
The British navy did not have a suitable ship capable of accommodating, in addition to crew and provisions, hundreds of seedlings that required special care along the way. It took too long to build a new ship. The Admiralty bought it from a private shipowner for £1,950 three-masted sailboat"Betia", which was rebuilt, equipped with cannons and entered into the Royal Navy under the name "Bounty" ("Generosity"). The relatively small dimensions of the ship (displacement 215 tons, length on the upper deck 27.7 meters and width 7.4 meters), characteristic of other sailing ships of that time, were compensated by its high lifting capacity and excellent seaworthiness, and its flat bottom was supposed to protect against catastrophic collisions with reefs.
If you imagine for just a moment life on military sailing ships of the 18th century, you won’t be surprised at the frequent riots on them. The captains had unlimited power over the crew, even over the officers - to say nothing of the lower ranks, who could simply be strung up on the yardarm without unnecessary delay for disobedience and intimidation of others. Punishment in the form of flogging was also common. On small ships, as a rule, there was incredible crowding, there was often not enough water, the crew suffered from scurvy, which claimed many lives. Strict discipline, arbitrariness on the part of captains and officers, and inhuman living conditions more than once provoked bloody clashes on ships. In England, there were few people willing to voluntarily serve in the Royal Navy; forced recruitment flourished: special detachments caught merchant marine sailors and delivered them in chains to the Royal ships.
A young but experienced navigator, Lieutenant William Bligh, was appointed commander of the Bounty. By the age of 33, he had already sailed in the South Seas on the ships of the famous Cook, visited Polynesia, and knew the West Indies well, where he was supposed to deliver breadfruit seedlings. Unfortunately, in addition to good experience in navigation, Bligh had a bad character and instability, and the best way communication with the team was considered gross violence.
William Bligh in 1792
On November 29, 1787, the Bounty, with a crew of 48 people, left England to cross Atlantic Ocean, go around Cape Horn and, emerging into the Pacific Ocean, go to the island of Tahiti. The destination of the return trip was the island of Jamaica - across the Indian Ocean, past the cape Good Hope. The voyage was planned for two years.
Due to delays caused by the Admiralty, the ship set off late when severe storms raged off Cape Horn. Unable to cope with the fierce winds, Bligh was forced to turn and go to the Cape of Good Hope, crossing the Atlantic in the stormy southern latitudes. Having passed the southern tip of Africa, the Bounty crossed the Indian Ocean for the first time in the history of navigation in the Roaring Forties and safely reached the island of Tasmania, and then Tahiti.
For five months the crew lived in Tahiti, gradually making friends and romantic relationships with beautiful Tahitian women. Describing this period, historians note that the sailors became as dark-skinned and almost as freedom-loving as the native inhabitants of the island, so when the ship with breadfruit seedlings, carefully dug up and carefully prepared for the long journey, set off for its destination, the crew could not stand it for long the tyranny of the captain, the humiliations that he endlessly invented for the crew (according to some evidence, he even flogged an officer!), a meager ration and a lack of fresh water. Everyone was especially outraged by the fact that the captain was saving on water for people in favor of plants that required watering. (However, keeping the cargo intact is a matter of honor for captains of all times, and people are an easily replenished resource).
On April 28, a mutiny broke out on the Bounty, led by first mate Fletcher Christian, for whom Despot Bligh showed particular hostility. Seized in bed by the mutinous sailors, bound hand and foot before he could offer any resistance, Bligh, wearing only his shirt, was brought onto the deck where a kind of trial took place, presided over by Lieutenant Fletcher Christian.
Although the rest of the ship's officers remained on the captain's side, they showed themselves to be cowardly: they did not even try to resist the rebels. The rebel sailors put Bligh and his 18 supporters in a barge, supplied him with water, food and bladed weapons and left him at sea in sight of the island of Tofua... And the Bounty, after a short wandering around the ocean, returned to Tahiti. Here a split occurred among the rebels. The majority planned to stay on the island and enjoy life, while the minority listened to the words of Christian, who predicted that one day the British fleet would come to the island and the rebels would go to the gallows.
The crew of the longboat, led by Captain Bligh, with a minimum supply of food and without nautical charts made an unprecedented journey of 3,618 nautical miles and after 45 days reached the island of Timor, a Dutch colony in the East Indies, from where it was already possible to return to England without any problems. During the voyage, the captain did not lose a single person; losses occurred only during skirmishes with the natives.
“I invited my companions to go ashore,” says Bligh. - Some could barely move their legs. All that was left of us was skin and bones: we were covered with wounds, our clothes turned into rags. In this state of joy and gratitude brought tears to our eyes, and the people of Timor looked at us in silence, with expressions of horror, surprise and pity. So, with the help of Providence, we overcame the hardships and difficulties of such a dangerous journey!”
Portrait of William Bligh in 1814
The rebels who remained in Tahiti in 1791 were captured by Captain Edwards, commander of the Pandora, which the English government sent in search of the rebels with instructions to deliver them to England. But the Pandora hit an underwater reef, killing 4 rebels and 35 sailors. Of the ten rebels brought to England with shipwrecked sailors of the Pandora, three were sentenced to death penalty.
Upon returning to England, he continued to serve in the navy, and was soon again sent for the ill-fated breadfruit seedlings. This time he managed to bring them to Jamaica, where these trees quickly took root and began to bear fruit. But the black slaves refused to eat the fruits of this tree. However, this incident no longer had anything to do with Captain Bligh. Upon his return to England, he received a cold reception at the Admiralty. In his absence, a trial was held, where the former rebels brought charges against the captain and won the case (in the absence of Bligh). The main evidence of the events on the ship was the diary of James Morrison, who was pardoned, but longed to wash away the shame of the rebel from the name of the family. The diary contradicts the ship's log and was written after the events. These notes became the basis of the novel.
In 1797, William Bligh was one of the captains of the ships whose crews mutinied in the Mutiny at Spithead and Nore. Despite the fulfillment of some of the demands of the sailors at Spithead, other vital issues for the sailors were not resolved. Bligh was once again one of the captains affected by the mutiny - this time at the Burrow. During this time, he learned that his nickname in the navy was that Bounty Bastard.
In November of the same year, as captain of HMS Director, he took part in the Battle of Camperdown. Bligh fought three Dutch ships: Haarlem, Alkmaar and Vrijheid. While the Dutch suffered serious casualties, only 7 sailors on HMS Director were wounded.
William Bligh took part under the command of Admiral Nelson in the Battle of Copenhagen on April 2, 1801. Bligh commanded HMS Glatton, a 56-gun ship of the line which was experimentally armed exclusively with carronades. After the battle, Bligh was personally thanked by Nelson for his contribution to the victory. He navigated his ship safely between the banks, while three other ships ran aground. When Nelson pretended not to notice Admiral Parker's signal 43 (cease battle) and raised signal 16 (continue battle), Bligh was the only captain who could see the conflict between the two signals. He carried out Nelson's orders, and as a result all the ships behind him continued to fire.
Caricature of Bligh's arrest in Sydney in 1808, depicting Bligh as a coward
Bligh was offered the governorship of New South Wales in March 1805, with a salary of £2,000 a year, double that of the former governor, Philip Gidley King.
He arrived in Sydney in August 1806, becoming the fourth Governor of New South Wales. There he survived another mutiny (the Rum Riot) when, on 26 January 1808, the New South Wales Corps under the command of Major George Johnston arrested him. He was sent to Hobart on the ship Porpoise, with no support to regain control of the colony, and remained virtually imprisoned until January 1810.
From Hobart to Sydney, Bligh returned on 17 January 1810 to formally hand over the post to the next governor, and to bring Major George Johnston to Britain for trial. On the ship Porpoise he left Sydney on May 12, 1810 and arrived in England on October 25, 1810. The tribunal dismissed Johnston from the Marine Corps and the British armed forces. Subsequently, Bligh was awarded the rank of Rear Admiral, and 3 years later, in 1814, he received a new promotion and became Vice Admiral.
Bligh died in Bond Street, London, on 6 December 1817 and was buried in the family plot at St Mary's Church, Lambeth. This church is now the Museum of Horticultural History. On his grave there is a depiction of a breadfruit. The plaque is located on Bly's house, one block east of the Museum.
What happened to the Bounty next?
Christian gathered a team of eight like-minded people, lured six Tahitians and eleven Tahitian women onto the Bounty and sailed away to look for a new homeland. In January 1790, nine rebels, twelve Tahitians and six Polynesians from Tahiti, Raiatea and Tupuai and a child landed on an uninhabited island lost in the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean.
It was literally the end of the earth - four thousand miles southeast of the island there was no land, an endless ocean desert. The South Pacific Ocean is one of the most deserted and remote regions of the planet from civilization; it is no coincidence that it is here that spent space stations are dumped.
Having unloaded the food available on the Bounty and removed all the gear that could be useful, the sailors burned the ship. This is how the Pitcairn colony was founded.
Meanwhile, the colonists were quite happy with life for some time, since there were enough gifts of nature on the island for everyone. The newcomers built huts and cleared areas of land. To the natives whom they carried away, or who themselves voluntarily followed them, the English graciously assigned the duties of slaves. Two years passed without any major quarrels. However, there was one “resource” whose reserves were very limited on Pitcairn - women. It started because of them...
The Polynesian part of the male population demanded equality. First of all, the women were not divided. Each of the nine sailors had his own “wife,” and for every six natives there were only three ladies. The discontent of the disadvantaged grew into a conspiracy.
When the Tahitian wife of one of the rebels died in 1793, the white settlers could think of nothing better than to take the wife away from one of the Tahitians. He was offended and killed his girlfriend’s new husband. The rebels killed the avenger, and the remaining Tahitians rebelled against the rebels themselves. Christian and four of his men were killed by the Tahitians. It would seem that’s it, but the killings did not end there. The Tahitian wives of the sailors went to avenge their murdered husbands and killed the rebel Tahitians. All Polynesian men were destroyed. Now there were four sailors left on the island (midshipman Young and sailors McCoy, Quintal and Smith) with several women and children.
There was a lull for some time. The settlers built their homes, cultivated the land, harvested sweet potatoes and yams, raised pigs and chickens, fished, and had children. But if Young and Smith lived peacefully, then two bosom buddies McCoy and Quintal behaved aggressively. They learned to distill moonshine and regularly engaged in drunken brawls. In the end, McCoy died in an alcoholic stupor by jumping into the sea. And Quintal, having lost his wife (she crashed while collecting bird eggs on a rock), became completely brutal: he began to demand the wives of Young and Smith, and threatened to kill their children. It all ended with Smith and Young conspiring to kill Quintal with an ax.
This man, who reflected a lot on his former disorderly life, completely reborn as a result of repentance, had to fulfill the duties of father, clergyman, mayor and king. With his justice and firmness, he managed to gain unlimited influence in this strange community.
The extraordinary teacher of morality, who in the days of his youth had broken all the laws, for whom nothing had previously existed was sacred, now preached mercy, love, harmony, and the small colony flourished under the meek but at the same time firm rule of this man, who at the end of his life became righteous.
Such was the moral state of the Pitcairn colony at the time that William Beechey's ship appeared off the coast of the island to replenish his cargo of seal skins.
In 1808, Pitcairn Island was discovered by the fishing vessel Topaz. They noticed that the island was inhabited by inhabitants of an unusual race. As it turned out later, these were the children of Alexander Smith, one of the rebels on the “romantic” ship. Smith himself, it turned out, was a priest on the island and taught literacy.
The captain considered the island uninhabited; but, to his greatest amazement, a pirogue with three half-breed youths who spoke English quite well came up to the side of the ship. The surprised captain began to question them and learned that their father served under the command of Lieutenant Bligh. The odyssey of this officer of the English fleet was known to the whole world at that time and served as the subject of evening conversations on the forecastles of ships of all countries.
The first visitors were struck by the small people living on a godforsaken island, and the atmosphere of goodwill and peace that reigned in the colony. Everyone was greatly impressed by the patriarch of Pitcairn, John Adams. When the question of his arrest arose, the British authorities forgave the former rebel and left him alone. Adams died in 1829, at the age of 62, surrounded by numerous children and women who passionately loved him. The only village on the island, Adamstown, is named in his honor.
Pitcairn became part of the British Empire, an English colony in the South Seas. In 1831, London decided to resettle the islanders to Tahiti. It ended tragically: despite the warm welcome, the Pitcairns were unable to live away from their homeland, and within two months 12 people died (including Thursday October Christian, Fletcher Christian's firstborn). 65 islanders returned home.
In 1856, a second resettlement of residents was undertaken - this time to the uninhabited island of Norfolk, a former English penal colony. But again, many of the Pitcairns wanted to return to their homeland. So the heirs of the Bounty were divided into two settlements: Norfolk and Pitcairn.
Today, direct descendants of the rebels still live on Pitcairn. The colony is a unique political, economic and socio-cultural entity in the Pacific Ocean. The island has its own coat of arms, flag and anthem, but Pitcairn does not independent state, but an “overseas territory of the United Kingdom”, the last remnant of the once great British Empire. The islanders speak a strange dialect - a mixture of Old English and several Polynesian dialects. There is no television, sewerage, running water, ATMs or hotels, but there is a satellite phone, radio and Internet. The main source of income for local residents is the export of postage stamps and the sale of the domain name.pn.
Pitcairn is administratively subordinate to the British government in Auckland, located approximately 5,300 km from the island. In 1936, up to 200 people lived on Pitcairn, but every year the number of residents decreases, as people leave for work or study in New Zealand and never come back. Currently, 47 people live on the island.
Among the few relics of Pitcairn, the main one is considered to be the “Bounty Bible” of Fletcher Christian himself, carefully preserved in a glass box in the church. She was stolen (or lost - the details of her disappearance are still unknown) in 1839, but returned to the island in 1949. The Bounty anchor, discovered by an expedition of the National Geographic Society, flaunts on a pedestal near the walls of the courthouse, and several further down the On the road there are guns from the Bounty, raised from the bottom of the sea. Among the attractions of the island you will definitely be shown the anchor from the ship “Acadia”, castaway on Ducie Island, and on the other side of Bounty Bay - the grave of John Adam, the only surviving one of the rebel graves.
The island became a British colony in 1838. Currently, the British High Commissioner to New Zealand is also the Governor of Pitcairn. The island has a local government body - the Island Council, which consists of a justice of the peace, 5 members elected annually, 3 members appointed for one year by the governor, and the island secretary.
The story of the rebels continues to this day. In the fall of 2004, the unprecedented scandal surrounding Pitcairn Island spilled onto the front pages of many Western newspapers: a trial of several island men accused of numerous rapes and sexual assaults of young girls was held in Adamstown.
Remembering "Bounty"
The dramatic story of the Bounty voyage was subsequently replicated by writers, artists, and filmmakers; in the 20th century, it became especially popular thanks to films (four of them were made, the first in 1916, the last, with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, in 1984 , various travel essays and Merle’s novel “The Island.” And when the Mars company named its chocolate bar with coconut after “Bounty,” it became clear that the mutinous ship’s worldwide fame was apparently not in vain.
The first significant writer to become interested in the history of the Bounty was Jules Verne - his story “The Mutiny of the Bounty” was published in 1879. The writer collected material about the mutiny on an English ship while working on his “History of Great Voyages and Great Travelers.”
The most detailed study of the voyage of the rebel ship was made by Bengt Danielsson, a participant in the famous expedition of Thor Heyerdahl on the Kon-Tiki raft, in the book “On the Bounty to the South Seas.”
Different authors portrayed the main driver of the plot, Captain William Bligh, in different ways (Jules Vernoux, for example, saw him as a noble victim of circumstances); they depicted the episodes of the happy stay in Tahiti and the details of the rebellion in different ways. But the grateful public always perceived this distant history with constant and undying interest, intelligently exploited by the entertainment industry, which still amazes the imagination not only with the cruelty of morals and the exotic component, but also with man’s desire for freedom.
By the way, you can still find drawings of the lost ship and instructions describing the assembly of models in specialized publications. People play this game with passion: build your own “Bounty”.
In the fall of 2012, there was a storm off the coast of America. Tropical Storm Sandy, which formed in the western part Caribbean, began to gain strength after passing Jamaica. It was reclassified as a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale late Wednesday. After Cuba, the hurricane passed over Haiti and headed towards Bahamas. In the future, weather forecasters predict its path along east coast USA.
Here is one of the victims.
Top view of a sunken sailboat (Tim Kukl/AFP/Getty Images)
Along the path of Hurricane Sandy North Carolina The legendary sailing ship Bounty, which was used in the filming of the popular Pirates of the Caribbean series, sank.
The ship, which was carrying 16 people, stopped communicating on Sunday night. The Coast Guard began searching for the sailboat Monday morning. When rescuers searching the area from the air discovered the sailboat, the crew had already left the sinking ship and moved to life raft. Despite the difficult weather caused by Hurricane Sandy - winds reaching 65 kilometers per hour and waves more than three meters high - rescuers were able to lift the sailors aboard the helicopter.
However, it later became clear that not everyone managed to escape. As the owner of the ship, Bob Hansen, said, while boarding the raft, three sailors were washed into the water by a wave. One of them managed to reach the raft, two more, including the captain of the ship Robin Walbridge, were carried away by the current
The sailing ship also made tourist cruises in the Caribbean.
The Bounty, launched in Lunenburg, Canada in 1960, is a replica of a historic ship that was burned as a result of a crew mutiny in 1790. The new vessel became famous after it was used in the filming of the film “Mutiny on the Bounty” with Marlon Brando. Most often, the vessel was used as a training vessel.
Replica of HMS Bounty in Świnoujście, Poland, 2012. (REUTERS/HMS Bounty Organization LLC/Handout)
Magazine series Sailboat "Bounty" – Build a model of the famous rebel ship. Eaglemoss Publishing (Gee Fabbri).
The Bounty ship is one of the most famous ships in the history of the navy. He was sent to fetch breadfruit seedlings, but the crew rebelled, put the captain in a boat and left him to his fate, while she fled to a paradise island. The Bounty was originally a coal carrier that was converted to transport plants from Tahiti to the Caribbean. New living decks and cabins were built on the ship, and the main cabin was converted into a greenhouse.
Every detail of this legendary vessel has been meticulously reproduced by specialists, so you can become the owner of the most accurate Bounty models.
Bounty ship model
Build this superb wooden Bounty ship model with simple instructions. You are given a unique opportunity to assemble a scale model of an 18th century sailing ship. It was created on the basis of original drawings and is distinguished by maximum similarity to the original and great accuracy - such accuracy is typical only for museum exhibits! The assembly steps are broken down into simple steps, and with each issue of the Bounty Sailboat magazine you will receive new parts for your model.
Every detail of this ship has been painstakingly reproduced by a team of specialists based on British Admiralty drawings prepared in 1787 when the sailing ship was commissioned.
Model characteristics
Scale: 1:45
Length: 915 mm
Height: 720 mm
Width: 345 mm
Materials: wood, canvas, metal
Remarkable quality and incredible precision. Every detail, every centimeter of this famous vessel was meticulously reproduced by a team of specialists.
- Equipment – Hatches, boats and other items are recreated with maximum accuracy.
- Sails – Canvas sails are sewn exactly like the sails of a real ship.
- Tackle – Miniature ropes tied exactly where needed.
- Interior – Thanks to the open side of the ship, you can see its internal workings.
Magazine
IN magazine Sailboat "Bounty" you will find detailed step by step instructions for model assembly and amazing story Bounty and first boats.
- Assembly Instructions – Clear, easy to understand step-by-step instructions.
- History of the Bounty – Discover the amazing history of the Bounty ship.
- Conquering the Seas – Learn about famous ships that made history.
- Dossier - People who changed the history of navigation.
- Sailing – All the most important facts and numbers.
- Innovation – The focus is on new equipment, technology, etc.
- Nota Bene – Details about a specific place, part or vessel.
- Types of ships - Points related to ships and navigation.
Release schedule
No. 1 – Parts for assembly (bow false keel, frame #2, bow lower deck port side, planks, anchors, sandpaper, glue) – 12/28/2011
No. 2 – Parts for assembly (frame #1, frame #3, bow part of the lower deck starboard side, slats) – 01/19/2012
No. 3 – Parts for assembly (frame #4, bow cabin bulkheads, planks, slats)
How many issues
Total planned 120 issues.
Recommended price:
first issue - 49 rubles.
second issue - 99 rubles.
from the third issue - 199 rubles.
Frequency: weekly (starting from the 4th issue).
Forum
Among the ancient naval chronicles, with their famous episodes, amazing and often dramatic adventures, the incident with the British military transport entitled " Bounty”, which translated means “generosity”.
At the end of the 18th century, mutinies between crews on British warships occurred quite often. Cruel discipline, bullying by captains, as well as inhuman living conditions were the reasons for bloody events more than once. In those times long voyages inevitably accompanied by large losses of people, mainly due to scurvy. Because of this, in British sailing courts there were very few willing to serve voluntarily, so forced recruitment of sailors flourished.
The captain in Tahiti began to arouse interest among merchants in the “bread tree”, which produces tasty fruits the size of cabbage. English planters in the West Indies also became interested in this. They realized that if these fruits replaced real bread, their profits would double. A letter from the farmers was presented to King George III of England, who ordered a ship to be equipped to Tahiti and the shoots of this amazing plant to be delivered.
captain of the sailing ship "Bounty" William Bligh
The Admiralty purchased for £1,950 three-masted ship, which soon became known as “Bounty”. The sailing ship "Bounty" had excellent seaworthiness. Lieutenant was appointed commander William Bligh. The ship set sail on November 29, 1787. The voyage turned out to be extremely difficult, but the sailing ship reached the island of Tahiti without much incident. For five months, the team prepared seedlings for long transportation to England.
After anchoring on April 4, 1789, the sailing ship "Bounty" with cargo on board went to sea. Hated everyday life began again in the life of the ordinary crew. The hatred towards the commander accumulated during the voyage spilled out on April 28, when the ship was already 1,300 miles from Tahiti.
In the morning, the rebels broke into the captain's cabin, tied him up and dragged him onto the deck for trial. Trying to avoid bloodshed, navigator Fletcher Christian, who became the object of criticism from the outside, captain, convinced the rebel crew to put Bligh and 18 people on a longboat and send them from the sailing ship Bounty to all four directions. There were 18 rebels left on the ship, 4 supporters of the captain and two people who did not participate in the events.
The mutiny occurred at a distance of about 30 nautical miles from the island of Tofua, on which Bligh wanted to land to replenish provisions. But the Tofua natives threw stones at the longboat, resulting in the death of midshipman John Norton. Left with nothing and fearing local cannibals, William Bly decides to go to the island of Timor, located at a distance of 3,618 nautical miles (6,710 km) from Tofua. Oddly enough, after a 47-day journey on a 7-meter longboat, the team reached their goal. Lieutenant Bligh returned to Britain and reported the mutiny to the Admiralty on 15 March 1790.
Subsequently, William Bligh, already in the rank of captain, made a second expedition for breadfruit trees and botanical specimens of flora, which ended in success. Bligh was later promoted to vice-admiral and in 1808 was appointed governor of New South Wales.
the unwanted crew was disembarked from the sailing ship "Bounty"
Meanwhile, the rebels on the sailing ship "Bounty" sailed to the island of Tubai, where they tried to establish a colony, but three months later, after an attack by the natives, they returned to Tahiti. Leaving behind 12 mutineers and 4 people loyal to Captain Bligh, Fletcher Christian, eight sailors, six Tahitian men and 11 women (one with a child) sailed on the sailing ship Bounty in the hope of hiding from the British Royal Navy. The Tahitians were not warned about the departure, since the main purpose was to kidnap the women. The rebels passed through Fiji and the Cook Islands. On January 15, 1790, the sailing ship Bounty landed at the Pitcairn Islands. The ship was unloaded and burned on January 23, 1790 in one of the lagoons. (The ship's ballast stones are still visible in the waters of the Bounty Bay lagoon).
map of the sailing ship "Bounty"
Bounty Bay
The colony began new life. Fletcher Christian became the recognized leader of this small community and followed a policy of justice and equality on the island. But in 1793, conflict broke out on the island between rebels and Tahitian men. Four sailors (Jack Williams, Isaac Martin, William Brown, John Mills) and Fletcher Christian himself were killed by the Tahitians. All six Tahitian men were also killed (some were killed by the sailors' widows). Of the men on the island, four rebel sailors remained.
Women's riots broke out on the island several times. The reason for them was the eternal drinking of men who produced alcohol from local plants. Soon one of the rebels died of alcohol poisoning, another was killed by John Adams and Nied Young. After this, peace reigned in the community.
In 1800, Need Young died of asthma, leaving John Adams as the only adult male on the island. He organized regular Sunday services and took responsibility for the education of young people. At this time, besides him, nine Tahitian women and more than a dozen children lived on the island.
In 1808, a British fishing expedition approached the island lost in the ocean. vessel"Topaz". To the surprise of the sailors, Pitcairn Island was inhabited. Only then did it become clear that it was inhabited by the descendants of the ill-fated sea crew « Bounty» . The last of the rebels, John Adams (who called himself Alexander Smith), served as a priest and teacher.
In 1825, John Adams was pardoned and the capital of the island was named in his honor - Adamstown. On November 30, 1838, the Pitcairn Islands (including the uninhabited islands of Henderson, Ducie, Sandy and Oeno) were incorporated into the British Empire. In 1856, the population of the islands reached 193 people and the British government provided Norfolk Island for relocation to the Pitcairns.
Pitcairn Island from space
Adamstown - capital of the Pitcairn Islands
inhabitants of Pitcairn Island in 1916
On this moment Pitcairn Islands are British Overseas Territory with a population of 67 (Anglo-Polynesian Mestizos according to the 2011 census), which is administered by the British High Commissioner to New Zealand. The main memorial day for the islanders is January 23, commemorating the burning of the sailing ship Bounty. The total area of the Pitcairn Islands is 47 km², of which the largest is Henderson (37.3 km²). Area of the only inhabited island Pitcairn - 4.6 km², dimensions - on average 3x1.5 km. On uninhabited islands no sources fresh water.
The story of one riot
"Bounty" (eng. Bounty - generosity)– small three-masted ship, who became famous thanks to only one of his voyages.
The ship was built for trading purposes in 1784 at a shipyard in the English city of Kingston upon Hull (Hulle) and bore the name “Bethia”. It was ninety feet long, twenty-four feet wide, and displaced 215 tons. In 1787 it was bought by the Admiralty for £1,950. The ship was rebuilt and renamed "Bounty". In the process of reconstruction the bottom "Bounty" sheathed with copper sheets, the sides above the waterline were painted blue with two yellow stripes, the masts, yards, topmasts and bowsprit became brown. The figurehead depicted an Amazon. The ship was armed with four cannons - it was prepared for a long and responsible voyage.
The start of the voyage was scheduled for the end of November, but only on December 23, 1787, a ship with a crew of 43 people set off from Portsmouth to Tahiti to collect breadfruit seedlings to later deliver them to Jamaica ( Antilles). It was believed that breadfruit would be eaten by slaves on the sugar cane plantations of the West Indies, which would be much cheaper than feeding them regular grain bread. The author of the project for breeding breadfruit in Jamaica was the famous British biologist Joseph Banks, who took part in James Cook's voyages in the Pacific Ocean. "My ship "Bounty" will be a real floating garden,” said Banks. It was planned to take on board the ship about a thousand breadfruit seedlings in flower pots; the Bounty’s flat bottom and fairly large carrying capacity helped protect the valuable cargo during the voyage from the reefs, of which there were a great many off the coast of the West Indies.
Bounty Captain William Bligh The ship reached the shores of Tahiti almost a year later - October 26, 1788. And after another six months, on April 4, 1789, he set off from Tahiti to the shores of Jamaica. The ship was commanded by Captain William Bligh. According to the testimony of contemporaries, he was often rude to the crew, did not disdain corporal punishment, moreover, poor-quality provisions were purchased on the ship during the voyage, and the crew members experienced a noticeable lack of fresh water, while the transported plants were watered abundantly and often. All this provoked a mutiny on the ship; on April 28, 1789, not far from the island of Tofua, a riot took place on board the ship, led by Fletcher Christian. Captain "Bounty" and the 18 crew members loyal to him were put out to sea on a seven-meter longboat with a small supply of food and water and sent to all four directions.
Captain Bligh and his companions spent almost seven weeks at sea, during which time the small longboat covered 6,700 kilometers (more than three thousand nautical miles). Despite all the hardships and hardships, Bligh and his team were surprisingly lucky: during their entire travels they lost only one person - midshipman John Norton, who was killed by the inhabitants of Tofua Island, where the exiles wanted to replenish their supplies of provisions. After all the wanderings, the longboat landed on the island of Timor, and from there Lieutenant Bligh and his supporters returned to Great Britain. On March 15, 1790, the English Admiralty learned about what had happened on "Bounty" mutiny
And you "Bounty" and the remaining 25 crew members went back to Tahiti, where some of the mutineers remained permanently. But the main conspirators understood that one day the British government would catch up with them, and they would have to answer for their actions in court. Therefore, the most determined and desperate went to the Bounty to look for an island where no one could overtake them.
Fourteen of the sixteen crew members remaining in Tahiti were arrested in 1791 when they were discovered by the British ship Pandora, specially sent to search for the missing man. "Bounty". On the way to England, the Pandora was shipwrecked in the Enterprise Strait, as a result of which 35 sailors of the Pandora and four crew members of the Bounty were killed. Arriving in England, the surviving rebels were put on trial, three were sentenced to death by hanging on the yards of the ship Brustvik.
Meanwhile on board "Bounty" nine former crew members (Fletcher Christian, John Adams, William McCoy, Isaac Martin, John Mills, Matthew Quintal, John Williams, Edward Young, William Brown) went to seek their fortune in the ocean, as well as eighteen inhabitants of the island of Tahiti: six men, eleven women and one child. The fugitives also took several types of domestic animals and seeds of various plants on the voyage.
The island they decided to settle on is called Pitcairn. This small island(with an area of 4.6 sq. km.) in the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean was discovered by the English sloop Swallow in 1762 and named after the sailor who first noticed it. On January 23, 1790, rebels from "Bounty" and their Tahitian companions became the first inhabitants of this island, organizing a colony. Everything that could be used in the household was removed from the ship, right down to the planks, after which the ship, which lived a very short life, was burned and scuttled.
But life on the island turned out to be difficult, in addition to the fact that the settlers had to arrange their life from scratch, plow the land, build houses, soon disagreements began between them, which arose mainly because of women, as well as because of the status of slaves of Tahitian men. Quarrels gradually developed into bloody feuds, as a result of which four years after landing on the island, only four English men remained alive, three of whom also subsequently died (one was killed, one died from asthma and one was poisoned by alcohol). And the community, consisting only of women and children who had been born by that time, began to be ruled by a single man, John Adams, who called himself Alexander Smith. Largely thanks to him, the colony survived, overcoming all difficulties. Adams became the children's father, teacher and ruler of the island.
Ten years later, in 1808, the English frigate Topaz arrived at the island to replenish its supply of seal skins and discovered a community there. In 1814, 2 English frigates arrived on the island to investigate the story that happened on the Bounty. Having seen the community and met Alexander Smith, the judges were very impressed and forgave the last of the rebels. Gradually, the population of Pitcairn Island grew and already in 1856, some of the islanders moved to Norfolk Island, and later the descendants of the first settlers of Pitcairn settled throughout all the islands of Oceania. About seventy people now live on Pitcairn Island. The island has its own flag and anthem, but belongs to Great Britain. The islanders receive their main income from the export of postage stamps commemorating the mutiny on "Bounty".
Events that happened on "Bounty", are known all over the world. Memory of the sailors who once rebelled against violence and gave life small island, is still alive today.
Hundreds of books and tens of hundreds of articles are devoted to the history of the ship and its crew. The mutiny on the famous sailing ship was most fully studied by the Swedish scientist Bengt Danielsson, who in the mid-twentieth century wrote the book “On the Bounty in the South Seas.”
In addition to him, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, J. G. Byron, Jack London and many others wrote about the Bounty.
In 1916, the first film was made in Australia, dedicated to the events on "Bounty". In 1935, an American film about a sailboat starring Clark Gibble was released. In 1962, a new film about "Bounty", Where main role played by the famous Marlon Brando. And twenty years later, in 1984, another film “Bounty” with Mel Gibson was released in the USA. Replicas of the Bounty ship, built for the 1962 and 1984 films, survive to this day and are located in Massachusetts, USA, and Sydney, Australia, respectively. The American replica of the Bounty, built according to drawings from the archives of the British Admiralty, was until recently one of the oldest replicas sailing ships in the world. Due to the fact that during the filming of the film, it was necessary to install bulky cameras on board the ship, its size differs from the original by about a third. Filmed in France in 2003 documentary"Survivors of the Bounty."
All that remains for us from the legendary sailing ship is the Bible and the steering wheel. The Bible is kept in London historical museum, and the helm is in the Fiji Museum.
October 29, 2012, caught in Hurricane Sandy, an American replica of the famous sailing ship sank off the coast of New Carolina (USA). 14 crew members were evacuated, the ship's captain died.
