Mutiny The Inside Story

Conrad Humphreys on the TV Recreation of the Voyage of William Bligh and 18 Men Cast Adrift After the Mutiny on the Bounty in 1789
 

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We staggered up the beach in a remote part of Timor, our weary legs gave way as each of us collapsed onto the pebbly shoreline. Tears of relief ran down our cheeks as we sat motionless for the first time in over 60 days taking in our strange surroundings. I felt oddly numb.

Looking back out to sea at the tiny 23ft wooden boat that had been our world since leaving Tonga, I suddenly wanted to be back on board. Cameras, interviews, people, hassle – surely Bligh didn’t have to contend with this. Maybe he did? He certainly did not arrive to a hero’s welcome. His men were half dead and most would die within a few weeks of their arrival.

This was to be our story, a modern day recreation of Bligh’s 4,000-mile open boat voyage from Tofua, where he was cast adrift from HMS Bounty, to Timor where he skil fully navigated Bounty’s launch through some of the world’s most remote islands and treacherous reefs. Bligh’s only mantra was survival. Cast adrift after a mutiny, he and his followers were left for dead with enough rations for only a few days’ sailing, a sextant, some declination tables, a pocket watch and some carpenter’s tools. No-one really knows what was in his mind as he pointed the launch towards Tofua, 35 miles away, but what unfolded was the greatest feat of navigation and survival in British history, although Bligh was not regarded as a hero by any of his peers.