Many of the Natives, of course, are distressed when they wake to find themselves heading out to sea. One maiden is so upset she simply takes a running jump, dives off the stern and is last seen swimming for the smudge of land on the horizon they have come from. Some of the older ladies are wailing, and lashing their faces. As they are not suitable for breeding in any case, and no Mutineer claims them, they are quickly dropped off on the nearest island with a canoe so they can paddle themselves back. They might even be able to pick up a bedraggled swimmer on the way.
22 September 1789, Samarang, Bligh spreads the word, Fryer concedes all
Oh, the sheer indignity of it!
Waiting to see the Governor – waiting! – one of His Excellency’s officials insists on making ‘many enquiries’,53 and with ‘much indelicacy’,54 probes just who Captain Bligh is, and what has happened to him that has brought him to these shores?
It is, of course, a damn impertinence, and Bligh gives the official the very shortest of short shrifts he has in his quiver, making the official quiver in turn. Things hardly go better when he does indeed see the Governor and is stiffly invited for lunch, whereupon another rude official, Mr Grose, also throws questions at him: How did you lose an entire ship, Captain Bligh?
Surely there was a sign that your men were unhappy?
Could you not read the mood?
‘Sir,’ Bligh finally barks, ‘I find your ignorance leading you on so far that I am under the necessity to put a stop to it!’55
(Unfortunately, Bligh finds much the same treatment from nearly everyone he meets in this town. Instead of being greeted with open arms and storerooms, he must answer impertinent questions about his role in the loss of his ship, questions about his line of credit and the security he can offer for his purchases. Sarcastically, Bligh notes in his Log:
I have only now to remark that I believe had I not saved my Commission and Uniform, and had been unfortunate enough to have put into this place that the whole of us would have been made prisoners … until I could have proved who we were, but at the same time I will do them the Justice to say that had I been a Smuggler loaded with Opium an Article highly Contraband they would have treated me with more politeness and Civility.56)
The man named Grose, admonished, stops his questions, and Bligh is allowed to relay his story as best he can to his enthralled audience. Ever a man of due process, to ensure there are no misunderstandings about the mutinous tale of His Majesty’s Armed Vessel Bounty, Bligh has come prepared. He takes from his pocket a particular document he has been working on.
In his neat but ink-smeared script is the whole story, written out in the salt water–stained leather notebook Thomas Hayward had given him. What’s more, he has a list of all the Mutineers, together with their distinctive features, with each tattoo, scar and accent carefully noted in order, ‘to secure the pirates wherever they might appear’.57
Fletcher Christian, master’s mate, aged 24 years, five feet nine inches high, blackish or very dark brown complexion, dark brown hair, strong made; a star tatowed on his left breast, tatowed on his backside; his knees stand a little out, and he may be called rather bow legged. He is subject to violent perspirations, and particularly in his hands, so that he soils any thing he handles …
Peter Heywood, midshipman, aged 17 years, five feet seven inches high, fair complexion, light brown hair, well proportioned; very much tatowed; and on the right leg is tatowed the three legs of Man, as it is upon that coin. At this time he has not done growing; and speaks with the Manks, or Isle of Man accent … 58
And so on …
Beyond this list being translated into Dutch and disseminated through every port in the Dutch East Indies – ports like Malacca, Batavia, Sunda, Oosthaven – Bligh’s desire is that every port they stop at on the way back to England will be given the same list. Whatever happens, if Fletcher Christian and his traitors try to return to European civilisation, they must be captured and arrested as soon as possible.
Everyone must be on the lookout.
(Still, Bligh does take care to name the innocent as well, with Joseph Coleman, Charles Norman and Thomas McIntosh, all noted as ‘deserving of mercy, being detained against their inclinations’.59 Bligh also records that, ‘Michael Byrn, the fiddler who is half blind, I am told had no prior knowledge of what was done and wanted to also leave the ship.’60)
Nodding his approval, the Governor goes on to assure Bligh that there is no need to worry as he will personally take the matter in hand, and see the information circulated.
Satisfied, Bligh returns to his ship, whereupon Mr Samuel hands him a letter that he has just received, marked to the attention of ‘Captain William Bligh’, in writing that Bligh recognises instantly. For yes, it is the wretched scrawl of the so-called ‘Master’ of the Bounty, Mr Fryer.
Sliding his forefinger along the line of the wax seal, Bligh opens the letter and is soon reading Master Fryer’s latest plea, with no little satisfaction.
Sir,
… you have been informed I uttered things tending to hurt your Character both as an Officer & as a Man. I therefore think it my duty to apologise to you for such conduct. In the first place the paper Signed Wm Adriaan Van Este which I showed was sent to me by Capt. Spikerman for I did not see that Gentleman and I present that paper to you to compare the Signature for I do not wish to hurt the Character of that Man and am sorry for such a transaction.
… you have most perfectly in my opinion done your utmost to secure the Health and Happiness of your Officers and Men, that you never have behaved with the least partical of Tyranny or oppression that unless you had been more than a Human Being you could not have foreseen the loss of the Ship … I think I am by integrity bound to give you this avowal of my own feelings & to say (conscious that I have done Wrong) I beg your pardon and you may depend I shall ever do my utmost to induce you to forget what is past. I therefore hope you … no longer suffer me to be a Prisoner to go to England or have any intention to try me by a Court Martial.
Sir
Your much Obliged
& Very humble Serv’t.
Jno. Fryer
Samarang
Sept’r 23rd. 178961
Very humble?
Indeed. So humble, we might say it is only a small step from there to completely humiliated. Nevertheless, Fryer has half done what needs to be done to save his skin. He has given Bligh a documented statement that he is in no way to blame for the Mutiny, and could not have done better than he did.
Now, as for that other rather unfortunate matter, all those papers, those bills and accounts, the so-called proof that Bligh had been defrauding the Admiralty? Fryer sends the incriminating papers to Bligh the next morning, together with another note: ‘I … humbly request of you not to mention anything about it at Batavia as it will give me a great deal of uneasiness …’62
Both men understand exactly what this is about.
In return for leniency, Fryer has positioned himself to be a public advocate for what a good leader Bligh is, and to affirm how well he has done against the curs and cads, the treacherous traitors who had tried to do him down.
Bligh is quick to accept. Fryer’s words are recorded word for word in Bligh’s journal as a record of his integrity and leadership.63 Let all who might doubt him, read the words of the Master of the Bounty.
There is no need, however, to preserve those ‘fraudulent’ papers. They are immediately destroyed.
For his trouble – and, in fact, in spite of it – Fryer is liberated, and allowed to resume his position as Master of the Resource, as they prepare to depart for Batavia.
Such is not the case, however, for Purcell, who remains prisoner in the other prow.
As far as he is concerned, Bligh can go to the Devil, a sentiment in which Bligh betters him, for, as far as he is concerned, the Carpenter can go to hell.
30 September 1789, Bounty, South Pacific Ocean, 500 miles south-west of Tahiti
What then, would an eagle eye, hi
gh in the sky, in the mother of all crow’s nests, now see of the original crew of the Bounty?
Directly below, on the ship itself, there are just nine Mutineers, including Christian – in the company of 19 Tahitian and Tubuaian men, women and children – doing their best to manage the many tasks. The one on the quarter-deck rubbing his chin, gazing around the entire horizon, is Christian, trying to work out where to go now. He needs to navigate them to some island in this Pacific Ocean where they can dig in and lead a fruitful life, while also remaining completely hidden from the Royal Navy. And it has to be somewhere in this general part of the world. For, as the expert eagle eye also notes, the movements of the Bounty are sluggish, failing to react quickly to shifts in the direction or strength of the wind. With his skeleton crew, only a couple of experienced top-men, it is hard to sail close to the wind and tacking is now a long and arduous process. Christian is forced to sail a much more circuitous route, tacking back and forth sparingly and covering a long zig-zag course instead of a quicker straighter path.
What’s more, the crew of a mere eight Mutineers – he had been livid to find that the Armourer, Coleman, had slipped away in the dead of night – are soon exhausted and irritable.
Given Christian’s feeble authority, orders are not barked, they are posed as requests. His directives are not decrees. They are entreaties, oft earnestly expressed. If they don’t mind?
They don’t, for the moment. But they’re watching you.
•
Six thousand miles to the north-west, meanwhile, Bligh, Fryer and 14 crew – Purcell still in confinement – continue beneath the searing sun to push their way from Samarang to Batavia, cursing their contemptuous Commander under their breath as usual.
•
As the eagle soars over Tahiti, she peers down to focus on the stranded Loyalists, Charles Norman, Thomas McIntosh, the Blind Fiddler and the newly liberated Joseph Coleman – accompanied by Peter Heywood and James Morrison, who claim to be Loyalists – together with the once-were Mutineers, George Stewart, Charley Churchill, William Muspratt, Henry Hillbrant, Thomas Burkett, Thomas Ellison, John Millward, Richard Skinner, John Sumner and Matthew Thompson.
To their great joy, they are warmly welcomed by King Tinah, who is quick to grant them ‘gathering land’, where they may collect whatever they like in the way of coconuts, yams, bread-fruit and game. Inevitably, most of the men quickly find their way back to their vahine, former lovers, as well as their tyos, strong friends who they had previously been staying with.
Now, while it had been one thing to visit Tahiti the first and second time, with the Bounty, it is quite another to be living here, full-time, with no link to the outside world, no known chance of leaving.
Such had been the feeling since they had woken up on that terrible morning to find that Christian had cut the rope to the anchor and the Bounty had left in the dead of night. The time since for the mix of Loyalists and Mutineers has been uneasy to say the least, with a clear division between them.
For the four indisputable bona fide Loyalists, the ones Bligh has promised to mark as innocent, theirs is primarily a feeling of impotent impatience. Hopefully, Bligh will have survived, affirmed their innocence to whoever of the Royal Navy is sent out in pursuit, and they will be safe once that ship arrives.
If he has not survived, however, or hasn’t been able to pass on the innocence of some of them, their fate is uncertain and their best hope is that, sooner or later, a ship of the Royal Navy will arrive, looking for what happened to the Bounty. That, of course, is not the position of the initial Mutineers, among them the thuggish Churchill and Thompson, both of whom had held their muskets at Bligh, while Stewart had yelled that it was, ‘The happiest day of my life!’64 when he had seen Bligh tied before the mast, and even done a Tahitian celebratory dance to mark the occasion.
For all of them, there is a matter of calculations. If, and it is a very big if, Bligh and the men in the Launch have survived, just how long would it take them to get to a British outpost, where they could raise the alarm? And from there, how long would it take for a ship to be requisitioned, crewed and sent towards what would presumably be their first port of call, Tahiti – at which point Loyalists will be saved. There is also, of course, the high likelihood that when the Bounty fails to appear back at Portsmouth, after a certain amount of time the Royal Navy will send a ship in search of her.
Either way, the best calculations are that the first time a British ship coming to the rescue might reasonably be expected to appear is in the first half of 1791, and the tension rises as the months pass. For the other question that arises, of course, is if a British ship does arrive, just how much will they know? If Bligh or any of his Loyalists have survived long enough to tell all to the authorities, they will of course know everything – at least from Bligh’s side. (And yes, that reality would point to killing the Loyalists as a solution, but the original decision – yes to mutiny, no to murder – holds.)
But the other possibility is that a British, French or American ship will arrive by happenstance, in which case all will turn on whether they are naval or merchant ships, which of the Mutineers or the Loyalists on the island get to them first, and who they will believe – if they are a French or American merchant ship, there is a good chance that they will not care to get involved either way. But they could be a great means of escape!
Not for nothing, thus, is the relationship between the Loyalists and Mutineers on the island a strained one, as they not only look sideways at each other, while keeping another eye on the Natives, but also are perpetually gazing seawards – not only waiting for their ship to come in, but hoping it is the right ship.
In the meantime, as they wait, at least Tahiti is as pleasurable a place as any in the world to be spending time – and not just because of the obvious lusty leisure pursuits available. For there is also feasting, dancing, drinking kava and sleeping it all off under the coconut trees …
James Morrison, a restless soul, for whom earnest activity provides the only balm, now starts to muse on the possibilities of building … a boat. And not just any boat. He does not want a mere canoe, nor even his version of a Jolly Boat, Cutter, or Launch. Oh no, he wants nothing less than a yacht, perhaps even big enough to allow them to return to England. To do it, he will need local help and, in the course of his conversations with some of the more influential of the Chiefs, at last the mystery of who had cut the Bounty’s cable so many months before is revealed. For while talking to King Tinah’s brother, the drunken warrior Prince Whydooah, the royal one blithely reveals it was him, out of loyalty to his tyo, Midshipman Thomas Hayward!
For yes, after tyo Hayward had been on watch that time the three men deserted, Bry had been so angry he might have done anything by way of punishment.
‘I cut the cable to let the ship come on shore,’ Whydooah recounts to Morrison, ‘where I hoped she would … receive so much damage as to prevent her going to sea. By that means I wanted to get my tyo out of Mr. Bligh’s power, as I assumed all hands would be forced to live on shore if the ship received much damage.’65
Morrison is stunned.
One way or another, it seems, Bligh and the Bounty were destined to be separated at some point. Fletcher Christian did it the hard way, while Prince Whydooah had a much quicker plan.
For their part, the men of the Bounty feel the time is now right – or as right as it will ever be – to reveal to Whydooah their own secret, concerning the way Bligh departed their company. It is Heywood who takes it upon himself to delicately break the news to Whydooah.
Slowly, carefully, young Heywood lets it be known that Christian had been lying through his teeth when saying that Bligh is with his father Captain Cook. Firstly, Captain Cook is dead, secondly, Bligh is not his son and, thirdly, well, there has been a mutiny, and in fact Bligh has been placed in a small Launch with his fellow Loyalists and has been set adrift.
For his part, Whydooah’s response, while lacking somewhat in delicacy, is clearly no
thing if not sincere: ‘I curse Fletcher Christian for not killing Captain Bligh. I will kill him myself if he ever comes again to Tahiti!’
For yes, as it turned out, Whydooah had already been apprised of some of the news, courtesy of HMS Mercury – a 28-gun ship, three times the size of the Bounty and four times the crew – which had visited only three months after Christian had first departed these shores. Its skipper, Captain John Cox, had been astonished to hear that as well as Christian, he had only just missed Captain Cook’s son, Captain Bligh, who had gathered supplies to take to his father in Wytootacke for some …
Some mistake in translation?
No, the Tahitians had insisted that Bry had gone to see Toote, who was very much alive. Gently, Cox explained that Captain Cook had been dead for a decade, and, in any case, had no son by the name of Bligh. When disbelieved, Cox had had the perfect answer. For it so happened that on board the Mercury, he had a painting depicting the death of Captain Cook at the hands, and spears, of Hawaiian Natives. The painting had been passed from one to other of the Tahitian royal family, whose grief at the death of Captain Cook had been channelled into rage at the infamy of Bligh’s lie.
Bligh has made fools of them.
Most hurt and angered of all is King Tinah, whose trust in Bligh had been so devastatingly betrayed. Well, he will not be so fooled again. Sooner or later, it is obvious, the British will come looking for Bligh and the Bounty, and undoubtedly will want some of these white men on Tahiti. Just which of them were loyal to Bligh, and which ones betrayed him is not certain to Tinah, and he does not particularly care. What he wants is to be quit of them all, and in the meantime, keep his distance from them. The best he can do is offer the cautious hospitality of his people, only. Even as he watches them carefully.
•
In the meantime, trouble is brewing on the zig-zagging Bounty.
Mutiny on the Bounty Page 42