L'officier William Bligh, âgé de 33 ans, reçut le commandement d'un navire de Sa Majesté Britannique : La Bounty. Sa mission : recueillir des plants d'arbres à pain à Tahiti et les transporter aux Antilles anglaises, afin d'obtenir une nourriture abondante pour les esclaves. Mais intempéries, détours, retards, jusqu'aux délices de Tahiti, et la violente mutinerie du retour ; les 5800 kilomètres que parcoururent Bligh et ses fidèles dans une chaloupe minuscule avant d'arriver à Timor au prix de souffrances inimaginables, firent de cette expédition une épopée dramatique et quasi-romanesque.
William Bligh (1754-1817) was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator eventually rising in rank to Vice Admiral. During his command of the "Bounty" in 1789, a notorious mutiny occurred. William Bligh and eighteen of his loyal seamen were expelled from the "Bounty" onto a small boat and began the greatest open-boat voyage in history, sailing some 4,000 miles to protection in Timor. The mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, sailed off with the "Bounty" in other pursuits. "Mutiny on the Bounty" is a collection of early detailed documents of the voyage of the "Bounty". Largely in part to the effort of Bligh to maintain an accurate log before, during, and after the actual mutiny, even the Bounty's crew list is well chronicled. Bligh returned to Britain and reported the mutiny to the Admiralty two years and two and a half months after leaving England.
