Mutiny on the Bounty (1789)
The Story                   of the                   Court-Martial of the Bounty Mutineers
by Douglas                         Linder (c)                         2004
The true story of the the                 1789 mutiny                 on the Bounty is far more                 complicated than suggested by film                   versions of the event , which have                 emphasized the gratuitous cruelty of the ship's captain, William                   Bligh .  The psychological drama that                   played out in the South Seas starring Bligh, the                 efficient                 disciplinarian, and his mate, the sensitive and proud                 Fletcher                 Christian, led to, among other things: one of the most                 amazing                 navigational feats in maritime history, the founding of                 a British                 settlement that continues to exist today, and  a                 court-martial in                 England that answered the question of which of ten                 captured mutineers                 should live--and which should die--for their actions.
The ill-fated voyage                 of the                 Bounty would never have happened had it not                 been for the discovery in 1769 of a botanical curiosity,                 given the name                 " breadfruit ," on the                 island of                 Tahiti.  On board the Endeavor,                 captained by the                 celebrated James Cook, as it sailed into Tahiti was some                 of England's                 best scientific talent, including botanist                   Joseph                   Banks .  After                 the American colonies achieved independence, and the                 reliable supply of                 fish they had been exporting to England became                 unavailable, Banks                 (named in 1778 as the president of the Royal Society)                 concluded                 breadfruit might fill the sudden gap in the diet of                 English slaves                 working the sugar plantations of Jamaica and the Lesser                 Antilles.  Support built for an expedition to retrieve and                 transplant breadfruit,                 thanks to Banks constantly pushing the idea, and in 1787                 Banks                 successfully petitioned the king to sponsor the                 effort.  A vessel                 was obtained and a commander, William Bligh,                 selected.  The                 voyage, however, did not rank high in the Admiralty's                 priorities--the                 ship was small, and Bligh was denied the status "master                 and commander"                 and the other commissioned officers and security force                 usually given to                 the captain of a voyage of such length.
William Bligh's                 career at                 sea had a remarkable upward trajectory.  By age 22, he had been appointed sailing master (the                 person in charge                 of day-to-day management of the ship) of the Resolution,                 captained by James                 Cook.  After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the Resolution spent a                 year exploring                 the Pacific from the southern islands to the Arctic                 north.  In the                 Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), Bligh witnessed Cook                 being bludgeoned to                 death on a beach by natives--a shocking event which                 might have powerfully shaped his own ideas about discipline. 
By 1786, Bligh earned                 command of his own ship, the Britannia,                 and brought on as a                 young able-bodied seaman Fletcher Christian, a                 twenty-three-year-old                 man with connections to the extended Bligh family.  On August 20,                 1787, Lieutenant Bligh took command of the Bounty.  When                 he began to                 fit-out and man the ship one of the first persons he                 recruited was                 Fletcher Christian.
On December 23, 1787,                 after                 weeks of delay, the Bounty sailed                   from Spithead,                   England, bound for Tahiti by way of Cape Horn .  Arriving at                 the                 tip of South America in late March, the Bounty encountered day after day of mountainous                 waves that                 finally forced Bligh to order a ten thousand mile detour                 around                 Africa's Cape of Good Hope.  The Bounty reached Cape Town on May 24, where it remained for                 thirty-eight days as                 it was completely overhauled and resupplied.  Bligh                 wrote,                 "Perhaps a Voyage of five Months which I have now                 performed without                 touching at any one place but at Tenarif [Canary                 Islands], has never                 been accomplished with so few accidents, and such health                 among Seamen                 in a like continuance of bad weather." During the                 difficult months at                 sea and the layover on the Cape, Bligh and Christian                 remained on good                 terms.  In Cape Town, in fact, Bligh loaned money                 to Christian, a                 not insignificant act of friendship from someone who                 himself had to                 watch every penny. 
Seven weeks after                 leaving                 the Cape, the Bounty anchored off the                 southern coast of Tasmania.  At Adventure Bay on                 Tasmania the                 first signs of real trouble surfaced.  Bligh                 criticized his                 carpenter, William Purcell, for cutting poor quality                 billets of                 wood.  Purcell responded that Bligh just came                 onshore "to find                 fault" and became so insolent that Bligh ordered him                 back to the                 ship.  Bligh lamented that he was so shorthanded he                 could not                 afford to confine or to try Purcell for refusing orders                 (and flogging                 was not, for a warrant officer, an available option)--a                 fact Purcell                 seemed to recognize as he continued a course of studied                 disobedience.  James Morrison, boatswain's mate,                 wrote that at                 Adventure Bay "were sown seeds of eternal discord                 between Lieut. Bligh & the Carpenter, and it will be no more than true to                 say, with all                 the Officers in general."  Adventure Bay also                 brought on the                 voyage's first death.  Able seaman James Valentine                 contracted an                 ailment there that led to his being bled by the ship's                 surgeon, Thomas                 Huggan.  Unfortunately, the bleeding resulted in an                 infection                 which led to Valentine's delirium and death.  Bligh                 blamed                 Valentine's death on the incompetence of Huggan and the                 indifference of                 officers who, he believed, should have spotted symptoms                 earlier.
Tahiti
28,086 miles after leaving                 England, on October 24, 1788, the Bounty rounded a reef on Tahiti's                   Point Venus .  Islanders in throngs of canoes                 greeted the ship,                 and                 "in ten minutes," wrote Bligh, the Bounty was so filled                 with Tahitians                 that "I could scarce find my own people."  Within a                 few days,                 Bligh busied himself gaining the permission of various                 island chiefs to                 pull up and carry to the ship breadfruit.  Bligh's                 relations with the natives were cordial, and he loved the place, as                 this entry in his                 log makes clear: "[Matavai Bay, Tahiti is] certainly the                 Paradise of                 the World, and if happiness could result from situation                 and                 convenience, here it is to be found in the highest                 perfection.  I                 have seen many parts of the World, but Otaheite [Tahiti]                 is capable of                 being preferable to them all."
The onset of the                 rainy                 season meant that the Bounty would be in Tahiti for five                 months.  Crew members constructed a compound that                 served as a                 nursery for breadfruit, and Bligh gave the breadfruit                 project                 nearly his full attention.  Discipline problems                 were fairly minor                 (although Purcell's insolence continued to be an issue)                 during the                 first few months of the Bounty's stay on the island, but Bligh's order prohibiting crew                 members                 from most trading with natives led to considerable                 grumbling.  Still, crew members couldn't be too unhappy, what with                 an abundant                 supply of native women, most of whom seem quite pleased                 to enjoy                 frequent sexual relations with their pale-faced visitors                 for the price                 of a few nails. 
The first serious                 problem of                 the Tahitian stay occurred in January,                 when three crew members (Charles Churchill, John                 Millward, and William                 Muspratt) and a considerable amount of arms and                 ammunition turned up                 missing.  Bligh demanded that his Tahitian friends                 aid in                 returning the deserters and their supplies.  He                 warned he would                 "make the whole Country suffer for it" if they failed to                 "bring the                 Deserters back."  Bligh's temper erupted a few days                 after the                 desertion when he found that spare sails he had ordered                 out of storage                 had been left mildewed and rotted.  "Scarce any                 neglect of duty                 can equal the criminality of this," he fumed in his                 log.  Three                 weeks after they disappeared, the deserters were tracked                 down at in a                 village five miles away from the Bounty.  The men were subjected to repeated lashings and placed                 in irons, but                 they remained grateful that Bligh had indicated that he                 would not                 recommend them for a court-martial, a proceeding that                 might be expected                 to result in their executions.
Bligh blamed the                 desertion                 in large part on Midshipman Thomas Hayward,                 who had fallen asleep at his station at the critical                 time.  Bligh                 began compiling a long list of complaints in his own                 mind of misconduct and neglect by his officers.  He complained: "Such                 a neglectfull                 and worthless petty Officers I believe never was in a                 Ship as are in                 this.  No Orders for a few hours together are                 Obeyed by them, and                 their conduct in general is so bad, that no confidence                 or trust can be                 reposed in them."
With 1,015 breadfruit                 safely                 on board, the Bounty was readied for its                 departure after twenty-three weeks in Tahiti.  Many                 of the men did                 not share Bligh's interest in leaving their island                 pleasures                 behind.  On the early afternoon of April 5, the                 ship sailed                 west. 
Mutiny
On April 11, the                 Bounty                 anchored at an island the natives called                 Whytootackee, one of the Friendly Islands.  Soon                 after leaving                 Whytootackee, Master John Fryer later reported, Bligh                 and Christian                 argued bitterly.  According to Fryer, around                 midnight on April 21,                 Christian complained to Bligh, "Sir, your abuse is so                 bad that I cannot                 do my duty with any pleasure.  I have been in hell                 for weeks with                 you."  The Bounty continued to sail westward, landing at Anamooka on April                 24.  Bligh again had words with Christian at Anamooka,                 calling him a                 "cowardly rascal" for letting fear, while he was under                 arms, of "a set                 of naked savages" interfere with his work of supervising                 the kegging of                 water.  The captain became further enraged when a                 native diver was                 able to slip the grapnel, a small anchor, off its                 line.  Bligh                 decided to detain some chiefs that were on board the Bounty until the                 grapnel was                 returned.  In his rage over the lost grapnel, Bligh                 also chastised                 officers and crew as "lubberly rascals" who could be                 easily disarmed by                 five people "with good sticks."  The grapnel never                 showed up and                 Bligh, not really anxious to cart the chiefs back to                 England, returned                 them to native canoes.  The Bounty headed                 north through calm seas toward the island of Tofua.
On the morning of                 August 27,                 Bligh concluded that some coconuts were                 missing from the pile kept between the guns.  "Don't you think                 those coconuts have shrunk since last night?" he asked Fryer.  Bligh announced that he would find and punish the                 coconut thief.  He questioned one person after another about the missing                 nuts.  According to boatswain's mate James Morrison, Christian                 responded to                 Bligh's interrogation of him by saying, "I hope you                 don't think me                 guilty of stealing."  Bligh answered, "Yes, you                 damned hound, I                 do--You must have stolen them from me or you could give                 a better                 account of them....I suppose you'll steal my yams next,                 but I'll sweat                 you for it you rascals.  I'll make half of you jump                 overboard                 before you through Endeavor Straights."  He ended                 the                 confrontation with orders that rations for yams be cut                 in half.  Christian was left devastated by the incident.  William Purcell                 reported that Christian left Bligh with tears "running                 fast from his                 eyes in big drops."  Bligh seemed to shrug off the                 blowup, and                 later invited Christian to dine with him--as had been                 his custom on                 every third evening--that night.
Bligh described what                 happened                 in the predawn hours of  April 28:                 "Just before sun-rising, Mr. Christian, with the master                 at arms,                 gunner's mate, and Thomas Burket, seaman, came into my                 cabin while I                 was asleep, and seizing me, tied my hands with a cord                 behind my back,                 and threatened me with instant death, if I spoke or made                 the least                 noise."  The mutineers hauled Bligh--still in his                 nightshirt and                 naked from the waist down--out of bed and forced him on                 deck.  As                 others gathered on deck, the mutineers ordered two                 boatswain to lower                 the Bounty's launch.  Eighteen people either were ordered into the launch or                 entered                 voluntarily.  Bligh by now recognized was about to                 be set                 adrift.  Assorted provisions were gathered,                 including twine,                 canvas, lines, sails, a twenty-gallon cask of water, 150                 pounds of                 bread, a tool chest, a compass and a small quantity of                 rum.  Bligh                 implored Christian to remember that, back in England,                 his children had                 bounced on his knee.  Christian, replying with                 emotion, said, "I                 am in hell--I am in hell."  Bligh, after being                 ordered into the                 launch, asked for arms, but only received laughs.  At the last                 minute, four cutlasses were tossed into the                 twenty-three-foot                 boat.  Bligh reported: "After having undergone a                 great deal of                 ridicule, and been kept some time to make sport for                 these unfeeling                 wretches, we were at length cast adrift in the open                 ocean."  To                 three loyalists detained on board the Bounty against their will, Bligh called out, "Never fear, my                 lads; I'll do you                 justice if I ever reach England!"
Tracking                   Down the Mutineers
Eleven months after the mutiny, and                   against all odds, William Bligh reached the home                   shores of England.                   Bligh took rightful pride in his accomplishment, and                   in his Narrative of the                       Mutiny ,                   published                   just months after his return, he devoted a scant six                   pages to the                   mutiny and eighty to the story of his remarkable
3,618-mile subsequent                     voyage in an overloaded, under provisioned                   boat.  The English Chronicle called Bligh's                   navigation of "his little skiff through so dangerous a                   sea" a                   "matchless...undertaking that seems beyond the verge                   of probability." A                   court-martial, routine in cases where captains lose                   ships, found him innocent of any wrongdoing.  The                   nation hailed                   Bligh as a hero and within a year he was appointed                   captain of a new                   breadfruit expedition, this one with a full complement                   of lieutenants                   and marines for better security.
In the summer of 1790 Captain Edward Edwards assumed                   command of the                   24-gun frigate Pandora ,                   with                   orders                   to sail to the Pacific and bring back whatever Bounty mutineers                   he and                   his men could round up.  On board as his third                   lieutenant was                   Thomas Hayward, a Bounty midshipman who accompanied Bligh on his legendary                   journey in the                   23-foot launch.  The Pandora arrived in Tahiti in on a fine March day in                   1791.  Three Bounty crew members, anxious to                   rebuild their lives back in England, swam out to the Pandora. Peter                   Heywood, who was                   just seventeen at the time of the mutiny, and Joseph                   Coleman and George                   Stewart, after announcing that they were formerly of                   the Bounty,                   were arrested and placed in                   chains. 
Coleman informed Captain Edwards of events after the                   mutiny.  He                   explained that Fletcher Christian left sixteen men on                   Tahiti and then                   departed with the other mutineers in search of a safe                   tropical                   haven.  Of the sixteen left in Tahiti, Coleman                   said, two men,                   Charles Churchill and Matthew Thompson, had been                   murdered.  From                   talking with curious Tahitians that had climbed aboard                   the Pandora,                   Edwards learned the                   probable whereabouts of the eleven remaining fugitives                   on the                   island. 
Edwards mounted a roundup effort with the help of                   local leaders.  By the second day, able seaman Richard Skinner was in                   chains.  A                   party dispatched to arrest a group that had recently                   sailed in a                   schooner on the south coast discovered that the                   mutineers, having heard                   of the Pandora's arrival, fled into the mountain forests.  The                   search party found three                   mutineers, James Morrison, Charles Norman, and Thomas                   Ellison, asleep                   in a shelter and returned them to the Pandora,                   where they were placed in a newly constructed prison                   hut on the                   quarterdeck.  "Pandora's box" became the name of the eleven by eighteen foot                   space.  About                   the same time, Michael Byrn, a fiddler who was nearly                   blind, became the                   eighth Bounty crew member                   captured.  Within the next ten days, the last of                   the Tahitian fugitives were rounded up.  Searchers discovered                   Henry Hilbrant                   and Thomas McIntosh in the hill country near                   Papara.  In the same                   area the following night, whey found the last four                   men: Thomas Burkett,                   John  Millward, John Sumner, and William                   Muspratt, the                   cook's assistant.
From journals taken from the captured men, Captain                   Edwards pieced                   together the story that unfolded after the                   mutiny.  Tensions                   erupted, it seemed, shortly after Christian took                   control of the Bounty,                   with some of the men                   complaining that Christian and his closest friends                   "were always served                   better than these who were thought to be                   disaffected."  The ship                   anchored first on the island of Tubuai, some 350 miles                   south of                   Tahiti.  Quarreling among the men increased, with                   claims to native                   women the most intense source of disagreement.  Within a week, the Bounty sailed from tiny                   island back to Tahiti for supplies.  With a load                   of pigs, goats,                   plants, chickens and--most significantly--nine                   Tahitian women, eight                   Tahitian men, and seven boys and one girl, the ship                   sailed back to the                   Tubuai.  For three months, the mutineers                   struggled to build a                   community in Tubuai, but by September tensions had                   become unbearable among the various factions.  The decision was                   made to split up,                   with some men to be brought back to Tahiti, while the                   others would sail                   with Christian in search of a new place of                   safety.  On September                   21, 1789, after dropping off sixteen men, each with a                   musket and                   seventeen pounds of powder, Christian and eight of his                   followers bid a                   final farewell to Tahiti.  Where they sailed and                   what became of                   them, no one knew.  He had told the men he would                   "search for an                   unknown or uninhabited island in which there was no                   harbour for                   shipping" and there would run the Bounty ashore--but that was the only clue as to the party's                   whereabouts.
For the next three months, Edwards took the Pandora from one                   Pacific island to                   another, in a dogged search for the remaining                   fugitives.  Trouble                   developed in the Samoas during a June rainstorm, when                   a vessel carrying                   nine men was lost.  In August, with Christian's                   party still                   uncaptured, the Pandora finally turned toward England.  On Australia's                   Great Barrier Reef,                   the Pandora ran aground and                   broke up.  Thirty-one crew members and four of                   the fourteen                   prisoners (Skinner, still in handcuffs, Hilbrant,                   still in irons, and                   Sumner and Stewart, struck by a falling gangway) went                   down with the                   ship.  The other ten prisoners, scattered among                   four lifeboats,                   eventually reached Coupang and, finally, England in                   March 1792.
Court-Martial for                       Mutiny
All ten of the Bounty prisoners (Burkett, Byrn,                 Coleman, Ellison, Heywood, McIntosh, Millward, Morrison,                 Muspratt, and                 Norman) faced the same                 charge: mutiny.  Under the law of England, it                 mattered not whether                 a man actively participated in seizing command of the                 ship or took no                 action to oppose the mutiny.  As Nessy Heywood,                 sister of one of                 the charged men, Peter Heywood, was reminded in a                 letter, "The man who                 stands Neuter is equally guilty with him who lifts his                 arms against his                 Captain."  The President of the court-martial                 announced that all                 ten men would be tried together.  Rejecting                 requests for separate                 trials, Lord Hood proclaimed,                 even before the                 proceeding began: "The Bounty's Mutineers being charged                 with and were guilty of the same atrocious Crime,                 committed at the same                 time."
The court-martial of                 the                 Bounty mutineers opened on the gray morning of                 September 12, 1792 in the captain's great cabin of  Lord Hood's                 ship, the Duke,                 moored in                 Portsmouth Harbor on England's southern coast.  William Bligh,                 already a national hero, was far from Portsmouth on that                 day: As                 captain of the Providence,                 he                 was on his way back to the South Pacific on another                 breadfruit-gathering mission. The ten defendants in the                 court martial,                 each                 charged with violation of Article XIX of the Articles of                 War, knew that                 conviction meant probable death. The law read: "If any                 Person in or                 belonging to the Fleet shall make or endeavour to make                 any mutinous                 Assembly upon any Pretence whatsoever, every Person                 offending herein,                 and being convicted thereof by the Sentence of the                 Court-martial shall                 suffer Death."
Judge Advocate Moses Greetham, handling the case for the British Navy,                 opened the proceeding by describing the                 long series of events, beginning with the breadfruit                 commission, that                 led to the court-martial.  The jury of twelve naval                 officers in                 blue coats and gold buttons listened as Greetham                 continued by reading                 William Bligh's detailed report of the mutiny. 
The prosecution's                 case took                 only a few days.  The key witnesses,                 unsurprisingly, were Bounty loyalists.  After each witness testified, the                 defendants                 themselves--a rather uneducated lot with no special                 knowledge in the                 ways of the law--were given the opportunity to                 cross-examine                 them.  One defendant, however, did have both                 helpful connections                 and sound legal advice.  Young Peter Heywood (just                 fifteen at the                 time of the mutiny), acting on that legal advice,                 reserved his defense                 until the prosecution had closed its case.
The                   prosecution based its case against                   the mutineers on three fundamental mistakes they                   made.  First, in                   the prosecution's view, they took no actions to                   directly thwart the                   mutiny.  Second, they did not get into the Bounty's launch                   with Captain                   Bligh.  Finally, the prosecution noted, none of                   the men made any                   determined effort to return to England after the                   mutiny, but instead                   many went into hiding in Tahiti.
Master of the Bounty, John Fryer ,                 testified first for the                 prosecution.  Fryer, who occupied a cabin opposite                 Bligh's,                 described being awoken by shouting just before dawn on                 the night of                 April 28, 1789.  Mutineer Matthew Quintal stepped                 into his cabin                 and warned him that if he said anything he was a dead                 man. Fryer                 testified that he looked out his cabin door and saw                 Christian holding a                 cord that tied that hands of his nightshirt-clad                 captain.  "Damn                 his Eyes," he recalled a mutineer saying to Bligh, "put                 him into the                 Boat, and let the bugger see if he can live upon three                 fourths of a                 Pound of Yams a day."  Fryer told the court that he                 pleaded with                 Christian to abandon his mutinous ways, but Christian                 replied that he                 should "hold his tongue" and that "Bligh has brought all                 this on                 himself." 
Fryer offered damning testimony concerning some of the                 defendants.  John Millward, he said, guarded him                 with arms.  When Fryer suggested to Millward that he "knock down"                 the mutineer                 standing next to him, Fryer said, Millward cocked his                 musket and                 pointed it at Fryer with the warning, "Mr. Fryer be                 quiet; no one will                 hurt you."  Fryer also reported seeing Thomas                 Burkett carrying a                 weapon during the mutiny.  The Bounty's master told the court that we encouraged James Morrison                 to turn against                 the mutineers, Morrison replied, "It is too late."  Finally, Fryer                 reported that he observed Thomas Ellison obeying                 Christian's order to                 loose the top gallants.
Fryer's testimony was                 helpful to several of the other defendants,                 however.  Fryer noted that Joseph Coleman "called                 out several                 times to recollect that he had no hand in the business,"                 and he                 testified that during the mutiny he saw Thomas McIntosh                 and Charles                 Norman leaning against a rail, apparently crying. 
William Cole , the                 boatswain,                 testified next.  He described                 visiting the seamen's quarters to awaken three of the                 defendants,                 Morrison, Millward, and McIntosh, after discovering                 Christian had taken                 the ship.  None, he said, wanted anything to do                 with the mutiny,                 but while he was talking to them one of the mutineers,                 Charles                 Churchill, walked into the room and "called out to                 Millward, desired                 him to come upon Deck immediately to take a                 Musquet."  Millward,                 Cole testified, complied with the request.  Cole                 also recalled                 seeing the prisoner William Muspratt "with a Musquet in                 his                 Hand."  Asked by the court whether he observed any                 of the                 defendants actively resist the mutiny, Cole answered                 that he did                 not.  The court also asked Cole, "You have said                 that Coleman,                 Norman and McIntosh were retained in the Bounty against                 their                 will--Have you reason to believe that any of the other                 prisoners were                 detained against their inclinations?"  Cole                 responded, "I believe                 Mr. Heywood was."
The court swore in William Peckover the next morning.  Peckover                 testified that Burkett, who was carrying arms, called                 down from the                 Bounty to the overloaded launch to see if he needed                 anything                 else.  When Peckover said that he had "only what I                 stood in, a                 shirt, and a pair of trousers," Burkett left and                 returned ten minutes                 later with additional clothes, which he tossed into the                 boat.  Peckover testified that except for Coleman, Norman,                 McIntosh, and Byrn,                 he "had every reason to suppose" that the other six                 defendants                 supported the mutiny.
Witness William Purcell described, in                 his testimony, how he succeeded                 in changing Christian's mind, convincing the chief                 mutineer to allow                 the Bounty loyalists to have                 the larger and safer of the two available                 launches.  Christian                 also relented to the ship's carpenter's demand that he                 be allowed to                 take his tool chest.  Christian's concession on the                 tool chest                 prompted other mutineers to urge that Purcell be ordered                 to stay on the                 Bounty, as he with his tool chest might secure the                 loyalists "another                 vessel in a month." 
Purcell was the first                 witness to offer evidence that incriminated young                 Peter Heywood.  Purcell testified that he saw                 Heywood on the booms                 with "his hand on a cutlass."  When the carpenter                 called out to                 Heywood, "In the name of God Peter, what do you do with                 that?", Heywood                 "instantly dropped it."  Purcell undid some of his                 damage to                 Heywood's case, however, when he described him as "a person confused                 and that he did not know that he had the weapon in his                 hand."   Members of the court had a great                 number of                 question's concerning the cutlass, including one as to                 whether Purcell                 thought the mutineers would have knowingly allowed a                 person "well                 disposed to the Captain" to touch such a weapon. 
Several additional                 witnesses                 rounded out the case for the                 prosecution.  They included midshipmen Thomas Hayward and John Hallett , able                 seaman John Smith ,  and Lieutenants Larkan and Corner of the Pandora.  The prosecution                 rested its case on Friday, and the court allowed the                 defendants the                 weekend, as Caroline Alexander writes in The Bounty (2003),  "to                 prepare and rehearse the words that would damn or save                 them."
The                   Defenses
The four men who Bligh had                 previously described as having been detained against                 their will, Norman , McIntosh , Coleman , and Byrn each offered short                 prepared                 defenses.  The defenses included--for Norman and                 McIntosh--personal letters from Bligh declaring them                 innocent of                 mutiny.  In the cases of these men, the                 court-martial was more a                 formality than a threat, and their eventual acquittal a                 virtual                 certainty.
For three other men,                 execution was no less likely than acquittal was                 for the four detained loyalists.  Thomas                   Burkett , for example, faced the damning testimony                 of more than one                 prosecution witness that he, with musket in hand,                 escorted Captain                 Bligh from his cabin.  His long shot defense                 consisted of                 accusations against Fletcher Christian forced him to                 participate in the                 mutiny against his will and suggestions that he desired                 to retake the Bounty and return it to                 England--but never had the support to pull it off.  Millward and Ellison also                 confronted long odds,                 having been described by witnesses as being armed with                 cutlasses at the                 time of the mutiny.   In his defense, Ellison                 called                 Christian "a mad man" and said that he feared what would                 happen if he                 attempted to thwart the mutiny.  Millward, in his                 prepared                 statement, claimed that he--like Burkett--had hoped to                 retake the Bounty at an opportune time, but                 that the time never came.  Unfortunately for                 Millward, when                 prosecution witness William Cole, was asked by Millward                 to confirm his                 story of a conversation about retaking the boat, Cole                 failed to recall                 any such discussion.
Genuine doubt existed                 only                 as to the fates of the three remaining                 defendants, James                   Morrison , William                   Muspratt , and Peter                   Heywood .  Morrison                 mounted a tenacious defense.  He succeeded it                 getting witnesses to                 support his argument, that he had wanted to join Bligh                 in the launch,                 but had been prevented by mutineers from doing so.  He also pulled                 off something rare in the court-martial in successfully                 impeaching two                 witnesses that testified against him.  Muspratt had                 to contend                 with incriminating testimony that placed a musket in his                 hands at the time of the mutiny.  He attempted to call two of                 his fellow                 defendants, Byrn and Norman, as witnesses to confirm his                 claim that he                 expressed displeasure with the mutiny as it was in                 progress, but the                 Court denied his request.
Most public attention                 focused on the case of Peter Heywood, the lone                 charged officer.  Heywood's youth, and his                 upbringing in a wealthy                 and well-connected British family (one of the                 court-martial judges, in                 fact, was related by marriage to the Heywood family),                 invited                 considerable speculation.  Heywood's connections                 were also                 responsible for landing him a post on the Bounty, a                 letter of                 recommendation on his behalf came from William Bligh's                 own                 father-in-law, Richard Betham.  Representing                 Heywood was the                 well-respected barrister, Francis Const. 
Heywood based his aggressive defense on three main arguments: (1) his "bitterly                 deplored...extreme youth and                 inexperience" prevented him from acting wisely at the                 time of the                 mutiny, (2) that he had desired to join Bligh on the                 launch but was                   sleeping below and did not arrive on deck until most                   of the action had                   occurred, and (3) when he finally did have an                   opportunity to get into                   the launch, it had                 become so severely overloaded that his joining the                 loyalists would have                 only increased the long odds that the launch could                 eventually make it                 to safety. On this last point concerning the launch's                 overloaded                 condition, Heywood wisely drew support from Bligh's own                 published                 statements on the matter.  Const tried to present                 Heywood as the                 likable young victim of a series of unfortunate                 events.  He                 counted on the captains sitting in judgment of Heywood                 to remember                 their own early years as untutored midshipman. 
Verdicts
Testimony in the Bounty court-martial                   ended on September 18, and the twelve post-captains                   began what would be                   several hours of deliberations over their fates. The                   ten defendants                   assembled in the great cabin to hear Lord Hood                   announce the verdicts of the                     court .  As anticipated,                   Coleman, Norman, McIntosh, and Byrn received                   acquittals.  The other six defendants were found guilty and sentenced                   to be                   hanged.  In the cases of Heywood and Morrison,                   however, the court                   "in consideration of various circumstances" did                   "earnestly recommend"                   them both "to His Majesty's Royal Mercy." A few weeks                   later, the King                   pardoned both men.  Muspratt, too, eventually                   gained his release,                   with the granting of his petition for a pardon based                   on his having been                   denied the opportunity to call his desired                   witnesses. 
On October 29, 1794, at 11:26 in the morning, Burkett,                   Millward, and                   Ellison were hanged by the yardarm aboard a British                   naval ship the Brunswick in Portsmouth                   Harbor.  The bodies remained hanging from the                   yards for two hours                   in the rain.
Pitcairn                       Island
On January 15, 1790,                 Fletcher Christian and his band of mutineers,                 Tahitian wives, and six male servants, ran the Bounty on shore on                 uncharted Pitcairn Island ,                 where the ship broke                 up.  It would be twenty years before the outside                 world would hear                 from them again. 
The admiralty                 journal  Quarterly                   Review contained in an 1810 the notice that the                 American sealing                 vessel Topaz,                 under a Captain                 Folger, stopped at Pitcairn and discovered an                 Englishman, Alexander Smith ,                 who claimed to be the last                 surviving Bounty mutineer.  Smith presented Captain Folger with a                 chronometer, that                 proved to be the one assigned to the Bounty, thus                 confirming his                 unlikely story. The report included Smith's (a.k.a.                 Adams) claim that                 Christian was the "leader and sole cause" of the                 mutiny.  Christian, according to Smith, was  murdered "in                 the neck with a                 pistol ball" around 1793 in an uprising of jealous                 Tahitian men.  The thirty-five survivors on Pitcairn "acknowledge Smith                 as father and                 commander of them all" and, the report noted, they "have                 been educated                 by him in a religious and moral way."  Among the                 thirty-five was                 Thursday October Christian, Fletcher's twenty-year-old                 son, and the                 island's first-native born resident.
Today, the population                 of                 Pitcairn numbers about fifty, nearly all of                 whom are descendants of the original mutineers.  Dark-skinned with                 both European and South Pacific features, the Pitcairn                 natives use a                 unique language that combines elements of English and                 Tahitian.  The British Empire incorporated Pitcairn in 1838. 
Pitcairn made news                 again in                 2004, with the indictment of seven island                 men on various sex charges.  One of the seven was                 Steven                 Christian, a lineal descendant of Fletcher Christian,                 and the elected                 mayor of Pitcairn.  Christian admitted to having                 sexual relations                 with at least three girls under the age of 16.