- Author
- Book reviewer
- Subjects
- History - general, Ship histories and stories, Book reviews, Biographies
- Tags
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- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- March 2023 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania and Mutiny in the South Pacific. This 327-page paperback edition written by Brandon Presser was published by Icon Books of London in November 2022, and comes with a rrp of about $30.00.
Mutiny on the Bounty is a timeless epic tale that had been produced numerous times over the 230 odd years since the mutiny occurred. There have been three Bounty films with the scene first set in 1935 with a menacing Charles Laughton as Bligh and a handsome young Clark Gable as Christian. In 1962 a brooding Marlon Brando went into character as Christian, marrying a beautiful local maiden and building a home in Tahiti. Finally, in 1984 our own Mel Gibson tried psychoanalysing the complex emotions of Fletcher Christian.
The story has three main components: (1) what brought about the mutiny; (2) casting Bligh and his loyalists adrift in a small boat bound for oblivion; and (3) the discovery of Pitcairn and life thereafter.
Brandon Presser is a Canada-based author, adventurer and TV host who studied history and architecture at Harvard. He speaks fluent French which is helpful for the French Polynesian background, which is the nearest major centre to Pitcairn and from which the females in the story originated. The author has undertaken an immense amount of research and followed this up with visits to French Polynesia. He lived for six weeks with families on Pitcairn Island, and visited the larger group of descendants on Norfolk Island. He therefore speaks with some authority and his narrative is compelling.
His Majesty’s Armed Vessel Bounty, less than 91 feet long, was built in Hull for the North Sea coal trade and was a smaller version of Cook’s Endeavour. She was first named Bethia and was purchased by the Admiralty for £1950 on 23 May 1787 and converted to a three-masted fully rigged ship armed with 4 x 4-pounder guns and 10 swivel guns. Her main cabin became a greenhouse suitable for carrying breadfruit seedlings from Tahiti to the West Indies where it was hoped they would supplement the diet of West African slaves.
HMAV Bounty sailed from Portsmouth on 23 December 1787 under the command of Lieutenant William Bligh with a complement of 44 including two botanists. Second in command was the sailing master John Fryer, who at 35 was two years older than Bligh. He would have been chosen with care as an experienced navigator who had stepped down from a ship of the line to accept this appointment. The other main character is 23-year-old Fletcher Christian who joined as master’s mate. When Bligh was on half-pay he and Christian served together for two voyages on a merchantman to the West Indies, with the youngster becoming Bligh’s protégée.
Both being experienced navigators, Bligh and Fryer may have had professional differences of opinion and Bligh slighted an important ally when promoting Christian to the position of First Lieutenant. This made the handsome and popular Christian a superior officer to Fryer, thereby upsetting a delicate balance of power, and possibly sowing the seeds of later disaster.
Upon reaching Tahiti. with an abundance of food and beautiful girls freely available the crew were largely allowed to live ashore while breadfruit seedlings were gathered and nurtured. It was fully five months before they had filled the great cabin with over 1000 plants. The crew were reluctant to leave this paradise but it was now time to sail for the West Indies and then head home. The relationship between Bligh and Christian soured as Bligh expected more of his subordinate and freely criticised his lack of initiative.
The strict disciplinarian Bligh could readily upset lesser mortals with threats and his acerbic tongue. Christian became distant and enraged at his treatment. With a cohort of followers, he decided to strike back by removing his nemesis and taking command of the ship. The officers and men were split fairly evenly between those who sided with Christian and those who remained loyal to the command. After securing the ship’s muskets and cutlasses, some 16 months after leaving England on 28 April 1789, Christian arrested his captain in a bloodless coup. The loyalists were loaded into the 23-foot cutter with minimum provisions off the coast of the Friendly Isles (Tonga). These islands did not live up to their name and on landing one of the crew was killed; as a result Bligh continued this epic open boat voyage until safely reaching Dutch Timor.
The mutineers wanted to return to their paradise but would they be hunted down by the Royal Navy with terrible retribution? In the end some stayed in Tahiti where they were indeed rounded up by HMS Pandora while others with Tahitian compatriots found the uninhabited Pitcairn Island which became their home and prison. It was not until 1808 that the remainder of this community was unexpectedly discovered by an American sealing ship which had wandered off course. The dramatic history was then later relayed to the rest of the world.
The author has left few stones unturned in providing a thorough first-class account of this classic tale, taking us from its very beginnings to the present day lives of Bounty descendants. Overall a fascinating history which at times is gruesome but the story still resonates to this day. This also forms an important part of Australian history with Captain Bligh becoming Governor of New South Wales and suffering yet another mutiny.
Reviewed by Arcturus