Mutiny on the Bounty

by Nordhoff

  "I suppose that Captain Bligh will take us there," he said. "I don't much relish the prospect of meeting any more Friendly Islanders. Their friendliness is of a kind that we can well dispense with."

  The carpenter appeared at the ladderway, followed by Robert Lamb, the butcher, who was helping to bring up his tool chest.

  "Mr. Nelson," he said, "we know whom we have to thank for this."

  "Yes, Mr. Purcell, our unlucky stars," Nelson replied.

  "No, sir! We have Captain Bligh to thank for it, and him alone! He has brought it upon us all by his damnable behaviour!"

  Purcell had the deepest hatred for Bligh, which was returned with interest. The two men had not spoken for months save when absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, when Mr. Nelson suggested that he might be permitted to stay with the ship if he chose, the carpenter was horrified.

  "Stop aboard? With rogues and pirates? Never, sir! I shall follow my commander."

  At this moment Churchill, who was everywhere about the decks, caught sight of us.

  "What are you about there, Purcell? Damn your blood! You'd steal our tools, would you?"

  "Your tools, you scoundrel? They're mine, and they go where I go!"

  "You shan't take a nail from the ship if I have my way," Churchill replied. He then called out to Christian, and there was another argument, not only with respect to the tool chest, but as to the carpenter himself. Christian was partly in the mind to keep him on the vessel, knowing his value as a craftsman, but all the others urged against it. Purcell had a violent temper and was regarded by the men as a tyrant second only to Bligh.

  "He's a damned old villain, sir!"

  "Keep the carpenter's mates, Mr. Christian. They're the men for us.

  "Make him go in the boat!"

  "Make me go, you pirates?" he cried. "I'd like to see the man who'll stop me!"

  Unfortunately, Purcell was as thick-headed as he was fearless, and he now so far forgot the interests of Bligh's party as to boast of what we would do as soon as we should be clear of the mutineers.

  "Mark my word, you rogues! We'll bring every man of you to justice! We'll build a vessel to carry us home..."

  "So he will, Mr. Christian, if we give him his tools," several men shouted.

  "The old fox could build a ship with a clasp knife!"

  Purcell realized too late what he had done. I believe that Christian would have given him many of his tools, of which there were duplicates on board, but having been reminded of what he might do with them, he now ordered the tool chest to be examined, and Purcell was permitted to have nothing but a hand saw, a small axe, a hammer, and a bag of nails. Bligh, who had overheard all that was said, could contain himself no longer. "You infernal idiot!" he roared at Purcell, and was prevented from saying more by Burkitt, who placed a bayonet at his throat.

  The decks were now filled with people, but Christian took good care that those not of his party should be prevented from coming together in any numbers. As soon as the launch had been cleared, he ordered the boatswain to swing her out. "And mind yourself, Mr. Cole! If you spring a yard or carry anything away it will go hard with you!" Fifteen or more of us were ordered to assist him, for the mutineers were too canny to lay aside their arms and bear a hand.

  "Foresail and mainsail there! All ready?"

  "Aye, aye, sir!"

  "Let go sheets and tacks!"

  "All clear, sir!"

  "Clew garnets—up with the clews!"

  The breeze was still so light as barely to fill the sails, and the dews of the mainsail and foresail went smoothly up to the quarters of the yards. The yards were now squared and the braces made fast, and with half a dozen men holding the launch inboard she was hoisted, swung out over the bulwarks, and lowered away.

  One of the first men ordered into her was Samuel. Hayward and Hallet followed next. Both were shedding tears and crying for mercy, and they were half carried to the gangway. Hayward turned to Christian, clasping his hands imploringly.

  "Mr. Christian, what have I ever done that you should treat me so?" he exclaimed. "In God's name, permit me to stay with the ship!"

  "We can dispense with your services here," Christian replied, grimly. "Into the boat, the pair of you!"

  Purcell went next. He required no urging. I think he would have died rather than remain in the ship now that she had been seized by mutineers. His few tools were handed down to him by the boatswain, who followed. Christian ordered Bligh to be brought to the gangway, and his hands were freed.

  "Now, Mr. Bligh, there is your boat, and you are fortunate to have the launch and not the cutter. Go into her at once, sir!"

  "Mr. Christian," said Bligh, "for the last time I beg you to reflect! I'll pawn my honour—I pledge you my word never to think of this again if you will desist. Consider my wife and family!"

  "No, Mr. Bligh. You should have thought of your family long before this, and we well know what your honour is worth. Go into the boat, sir!"

  Seeing that all pleading was useless, Bligh obeyed, and was followed by Mr. Peckover and Norton, the quartermaster. Christian then handed down a sextant and a book of nautical tables.

  "You have your compass, sir. This book is sufficient for every purpose, and the sextant is my own. You know it to be a good one." With his hands freed and once more in command, though only of his ship's launch, Bligh became his old self again.

  "I know you to be a bloody scoundrel!" he shouted, shaking his fist in Christian's direction. "But I'll have vengeance! Mind that, you ungrateful villain! I'll see you swinging at a yardarm before two years have passed! And every traitor with you!"

  Fortunately for Bligh, Christian's attention was engaged elsewhere, but several of the mutineers at the bulwarks replied to him in language as forceful as the captain's, and it was a near thing that he was not fired upon.

  In the confusion I had lost sight of Stewart. We had been hauling together at one of the braces when the launch was hoisted out, but now I could find him nowhere. It soon became clear that many were to be allowed to go with Bligh, and Mr. Nelson and I, who had been standing together by the bulwarks, were hastening toward the after ladderway when we were stopped by Christian.

  "Mr. Nelson, you and Mr. Byam may stay with the ship if you choose," he said.

  "I have sympathy with you for the wrongs you have suffered, Mr. Christian," Nelson replied, "but none whatever with this action to redress them."

  "And when have I asked you for sympathy, sir? Mr. Byam, what is your decision?"

  "I shall go with Captain Bligh."

  "Then make haste, both of you."

  "Have we permission to fetch our clothes?" Nelson asked. "Yes, but look sharp!"

  Nelson's cabin was on the orlop deck directly below that of Fryer. Two guards stood by the ladderway on the lower deck. We parted there and I went to the midshipmen's berth, where Thompson was still on guard over the arms chest. I had seen nothing of Tinkler and Elphinstone, and was about to look into the starboard berth to see if they were still there. Thompson prevented me.

  "Never you mind the starboard berth," he said. "Get your clothes and clear out!"

  The berth was screened off from the main hatchway by a canvas-covered framework. To my surprise, I found Young still asleep in his hammock. He had been on watch from twelve to four, and this was his customary time for rest, but it was strange that he could have slept through such a turmoil. I tried to rouse him, but he was a notoriously heavy sleeper. Finding the matter hopeless, I left off and began to ransack my chest for things I should most need. Stacked in the corner of the berth were several Friendly Island war clubs that we had obtained from the savages of Namuka. They had been carved from the toa, or ironwood tree, which well deserved its name, for in weight and texture the wood was indeed like iron. At the sight of them the thought flashed into my mind, "Could I strike Thompson down with one of these?" I glanced quickly out the doorway. Thompson was now seated on the arms chest with his musket between his knees, facing the passageway lead
ing aft. But he saw me thrust out my head and, with an oath, ordered me to "look sharp and clear out of there."

  At this moment Morrison came along the passageway, and as luck would have it Thompson's attention was attracted by someone calling him from above. I beckoned Morrison into the berth, and he dodged in without having been seen. There was no need for words. I handed him one of the war clubs and took another for myself; then, together, we made a last effort to waken Young. Not daring to speak, we nearly shook him out of his hammock, but we might have spared ourselves the trouble. I heard Thompson call out, "He's getting his clothes, sir. I'll have him up at once." Morrison drew back by the door and raised his club, and I stood at ready on the other side, for we both expected Thompson to come in for me. Instead of that he shouted, "Out of there, Byam, and be quick about it!"

  "I'm coming," I called, and again looked out of the doorway. My heart sank as I saw Burkitt and McCoy coming along from the fore hatchway. They stopped by the arms chest to speak to Thompson. Both had muskets, of course. Our chance to get at Thompson and the arms chest was lost unless they should pass on. Fortune was against us. We waited for at least two minutes longer and the men remained where they were. I heard Nelson's voice calling down the hatchway: "Byam! Lively there, lad, or you'll be left behind!" And Tinkler's: "For God's sake, hasten, Byam!"

  It was a bitter moment for Morrison and me. The opportunity had been a poor one at best, but had there been time something might have come of it. We quickly put the war clubs aside and rushed out, colliding with Thompson, who was coming to see what I was about.

  "Damn your blood, Morrison! What are you doing here?"

  We didn't wait to explain, but ran along the passage to the ladder-way. Morrison preceded me, and in my haste to reach the deck, cumbered as I was with my bag of clothes, I slipped and fell halfway down the ladder, giving my shoulder a wrench as I struck the gratings. I clambered up again and was rushing toward the gangway when Churchill seized me. "You're too late, Byam," he said. "You can't go." "Can't go? By God, I will! " I exclaimed, giving him a shove which loosened his hold and all but toppled him over. I was frantic, for I saw the launch being veered astern, one of the mutineers carrying the painter aft. Burkitt and Quintal were holding Coleman, the armourer, who was begging to go into the boat, and Morrison was struggling with several men who were keeping him back from the gangway. We were, in fact, too late; the launch was loaded almost to the point of foundering, and I heard Bligh shouting: "I can take no more of you, lads! I'll do you justice if ever we reach England!"

  When the launch had drifted astern, the man holding the painter took a turn with it around the rail and threw the free end to someone in the boat. Those left in the ship now crowded along the rail, and I had difficulty in finding a place where I could look over the side. I was sick at heart, and appalled at the realization that I was, indeed, to be left behind among the mutineers. Norton was in the bow of the launch holding the end of the painter. Bligh was standing on a thwart, astern. Of the others, some were seated and some were standing, and the boat was so heavily loaded as to have no more than seven or eight inches of freeboard. There was a great deal of shouting back and forth, and Bligh was contributing his full share to the tumult by bellowing out orders to those in the boat, and curses and imprecations against Christian and his men.

  Some of the mutineers looked on silently and thoughtfully, but others were jeering at Bligh, and I heard one of them shout: "Go and see if you can live on half a pound of yams a day, you bloody villain!" Fryer called out, "In God's name, Mr. Christian, give us arms and ammunition! Think where we go! Let us have a chance to defend our lives!" Others, the boatswain among them, joined earnestly in this plea.

  "Arms be damned!" someone shouted back.

  "You don't need 'em."

  "Old Bligh loves the savages. He'll take care of you!"

  "Use your rattan on 'em, boatswain!"

  Coleman and I sought out Christian, who was standing by one of the cabin gratings, out of sight of the launch. We begged him to let Bligh have some muskets and ammunition.

  "Never!" he said. "They shall have no firearms."

  "Then give them some cutlasses at least, Mr. Christian," Coleman urged, "unless you wish them to be murdered the moment they set foot on shore. Think of our experience at Namuka!"

  Christian consented to this. He ordered Churchill to fetch some cutlasses from the arms chest, and a moment later he returned with four, which were handed into the boat. Meanwhile, Morrison had taken advantage of this opportunity to run below for some additional provisions for the launch. He and John Millward brought up a mess kid filled with pieces of salt pork, several calabashes of water, and some additional bottles of wine and spirits, which they lowered into the boat.

  "You cowards!" Purcell shouted, as the cutlasses were handed in. "Will you give us nothing but these?"

  "Shall we lower the arms chest, carpenter?" Isaac Martin asked, jeeringly. McCoy threatened him with his musket. "You'll get a bellyful of lead in a minute," he shouted.

  "Bear off and turn one of the swivels on 'em!" someone else called. "Give 'em a whiff of grape!"

  Burkitt now raised his musket and pointed it at Bligh. Alexander Smith, who was standing beside him, seized the barrel of the musket and thrust it up. I am convinced that Burkitt meant to shoot Bligh, but Christian, observing this, ordered him to be dragged back, deprived of his arms, and placed under guard. He made a terrific struggle, and it required four men to disarm him.

  Meanwhile, Fryer and others were urging Bligh to cast off lest they should all be murdered. This Bligh now ordered to be done, and the launch dropped slowly astern. The oars were gotten out, and the boat, so low in the water that she seemed on the point of foundering, was headed toward the island of Tofoa, which bore northeast, about ten leagues distant. Twelve men made a good load for the launch. She now carried nineteen, to say nothing of the food and water and the gear of the men.

  "Thank God we were too late to go with her, Byam!"

  Morrison was standing beside me.

  "Do you mean that?" I asked.

  He was silent for a moment, as though considering the matter carefully. Then he said, "No, I don't. I would willingly have taken my chance in her—but it's a slim chance indeed. They'll never see England again."

  Tinkler was sitting on a thwart. Mr. Nelson, and Peckover, Norton, Elphinstone, the master's mate, Ledward, the acting surgeon all were as good as dead, more than a thousand miles from any port where they might expect help. About them were islands filled with the cruelest of savages, who could be held at bay only by men well armed. Granted that some might escape death at the hands of the Indians, what chance had so tiny a boat, so appallingly loaded, to reach any civilized port? The possibility was so remote as to be not worth considering.

  Sick at heart, I turned away from the sight of the frail craft, looking so small, so helpless, on that great waste of waters. There had been a cheer from some of the mutineers: "Huzza for Tahiti!" as Christian had ordered, "Get sail on her!" Ellison, McCoy, and Williams had run aloft to loose the fore-topgallant sail. Afterward a silence had fallen over the ship, and the men stood by the bulwarks, gazing at the launch growing smaller and smaller as we drew away from her. Christian, too, was watching, standing where I had last seen him, by the cabin grating. What his thoughts were at this time it would be impossible to say. His sense of the wrongs he had suffered at Bligh's hands was so deep and overpowering as to dominate, I believe, every other feeling. In the course of a long life I have met no others of his kind. I knew him, I suppose, as well as anyone could be said to know him, and yet I never felt that I truly understood the workings of his mind and heart. Men of such passionate nature, when goaded by injustice into action, lose all sense of anything save their own misery. They neither know nor care, until it is too late, what ruin they make of the lives of others.

  It was getting on toward eight o'clock when the launch had been cast off. Shortly afterward the breeze, from the northeast,
freshened, and the Bounty gathered way quietly, slipping through the water with a slight hiss of foam. The launch became a mere speck, seen momentarily as she rose to the swell or as the sunlight flashed from her oars. Within half an hour she had vanished as though swallowed up by the sea. Our course was west-northwest.

  CHAPTER X.—FLETCHER CHRISTIAN

  Our company was divided, and, though linked together by a common disaster, we were not to share a common fate. I doubt whether a ship has ever sailed from England whose numbers, during the course of her voyage, were to be so widely scattered over the face of the earth, and whose individual members were to meet ends so strange and, in many cases, so tragic.

  There had gone with Bligh, in the launch:

  John Fryer, Master Thomas Ledward, Acting Surgeon David Nelson, Botanist William Peckover, Gunner William Cole, Boatswain William Elphinstone, Master's Mate William Purcell, Carpenter

  Midshipmen: Thomas Hayward John Hallet Robert Tinkler

  Quartermasters: John Norton Peter Lenkletter

  George Simpson, Quartermaster's Mate Lawrence Lebogue, Sailmaker Mr. Samuel, Clerk Robert Lamb, Butcher

  Cooks: John Smith Thomas Hall

  Of those who remained in the Bounty , the following had taken an active part in the mutiny:

  Fletcher Christian, Acting Lieutenant John Mills, Gunner's Mate Charles Churchill, Master-at-Arms William Brown, Gardener

  Able Seamen: Thomas Burkitt Matthew Quintal John Sumner John Millward William McCoy Henry Hillbrandt Alexander Smith John Williams Thomas Ellison Isaac Martin Richard Skinner Matthew Thompson

  Those in the Bounty with, but not of, Christian's party, were:

  Midshipmen: Edward Young George Stewart

  James Morrison, Boatswain's Mate Joseph Coleman, Armourer Charles Norman, Carpenter's Mate Thomas McIntosh, Carpenter's Crew William Muspratt, Able Seaman

  Also Michael Byrne, the half-blind seaman, and myself. William Muspratt had, for a moment, pretended to be of the mutineers' party and lad accepted a musket offered to him by Churchill. He had overheard Fryer say that he hoped to form a party to retake the vessel, and I am certain he had taken the musket for no other reason than to assist Fryer. When he saw that the matter was hopeless, he immediately laid aside his arms. Coleman, Norman, and McIntosh had been prevented From going in the launch because the mutineers had need of their services as artificers. Smiths and carpenters can no more be dispensed with on a ship at sea than can seamen themselves.