The most famous mutiny in history and the
extraordinary small boat voyage that resulted are retold in William Bligh’s A
Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His Majesty’s Ship, Bounty and the subsequent
voyage of part of the crew in the ship’s boat from Tofoa, one of the friendly
islands, to Timor, a Dutch settlement in the East Indies. This account was
published in London in 1790, within a year of
the debilitating seven week
open-boat voyage that covered over 3,500 nautical miles. Bligh’s narrative of
the voyage includes descriptions of the privations the crew endured, including
the difficulty of catching fish, necessitating the action described in this passage after about three weeks at
sea: “The weather was now serene, but unhappily we found ourselves unable to
bear the sun’s heat; many of us suffering a languor and faintness, which made
life indifferent. We were, however, so fortunate as to catch two boobies today;
their stomachs contained several flying-fish and small cuttlefish, all of which
I saved to be divided for dinner.” Yum.
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| Title Page of the newest addition to the G.W. Blunt White Library |
This volume, as well as A Voyage to the South Sea….
,an ensuing book written by Bligh to relay in more detail the story of the overall
expedition of the Bounty and the mutiny, were recently donated to the G.W.
Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport as important parts of a larger gift.
These two rare examples add to the wealth of an already strong research collection
and will find a new, secure home for future researchers in maritime history.
