Ships Built by Hugh Blaydes 1686 -1759 at The Blaydes Shipyard Kingston upon Hull
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Ships Built by Hugh Blaydes at The Blaydes Shipyard in Kingston upon Hull
“HMS Success”
was a 20-gun Royal Navy ship launched in 1740 as the first government contract for the Blaydes Yard in Hull. She had a crew of 140 men. She had several famous commanders over her lifetime.
She was
commissioned in October 1739 at a cost of £4800 and launched in July 1740 under
the command of Captain Bradwarden Thomas who took her over the Atlantic to New England. There in October 1742 command
passed to Captain Jack Wickham who sailed her to Lisbon in 1743. In June 1744 she
went to Dunkirk.
From
January to May 1746, she underwent repairs at Sheerness Dockyard. She went under further alterations and repair at Deptford bringing total costs to
£7000 over her original build cost and did not return to action until June 1749
when she returned to New England. After three years of service, she returned
for further repair at Woolwich which was completed in May
1754 at a cost of a further £7000.
Under
command of Captain John Rous she was part in the Battle of Fort Beausejour off the New Brunswick coast in May 1755. In
August 1755 the ship attacked several French-owned fishing boats and destroyed
harbour facilities at Codroy, Newfoundland.
In 1757 she
was stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia , and command transferred to Captain Paul Henry Ourry who took her on the Louisburg Expedition but departed prior to the Siege of Louisburg.
In 1758 she
had a fourth refit, again at Deptford which was completed in March. In June
1758 still under the command of Captain Ourry she attacked St Malo before joining a convoy
to South Carolina where command changed to Captain George Watson (d.1774).
In 1761/2
she had a fifth repair and upgrade, again at Deptford, costing over £5000. She
then returned to South Carolina with Captain John Botterell.
She was
paid off in February 1764 but had three further captains, the last Skeffington Lutwidge leaving her in August 1775. She was broken in Sheerness in May 1779. This exercise
reused as much material as possible for other ships.
The ship's
logbook of 1747 to 1752 plus the private logbook of midshipman John Gauntlett
covering the period 1754 to 1756 are held at the National Archive, Kew.
“HMS Adventure”
HMS Adventure (1741) was a fourth-rate ship of the line launched in 1741, rebuilt as a 32-gun fifth rate in 1758, and sold
in 1770.
was a
44-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy that saw service between
1742 and 1745, during the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1745 Anglesea was captured in an engagement with
the 50-gun French ship of the line Apollon. The capture of the vessel resulted in an amendment of the British Articles of War, regarding the responsibility
of commanding officers to do their utmost to engage with the enemy.
Following
her capture, the ship was taken into French service as L'Anglesea.
She was removed from the French Navy lists in 1753.
On 28 March
1745, Anglesea sailed out of Kinsale under the command of
Captain Jacob Elton. Anglesea was ordered to join other
warships in the English Channel and patrol for French
shipping. On the afternoon of 29 March, a large sail was spotted windward
(upwind) of Anglesea, with the unknown vessel heading in the
direction of the British warship. Captain Elton believed the ship to be the
60-gun HMS Augusta and took no action in response to the sail. The vessel was the
50-gun French ship of the line Apollon, which had
detected Anglesea and made ready for an engagement.
When it was
discovered that the approaching ship flew French colors, Captain Elton
ordered Anglesea's mainsail raised in preparation for a flight. The
effect of this action was to blow the ship to one side and flood the lower gun
decks of the vessel. Apollon laid down a withering fire
onto Anglesea, with the first broadside killing both Captain Elton
and the ship's master, leaving Second
Lieutenant Baker Phillips in command. Apollon's position granted it the
advantage in manoeuvrability, and soon the British warship was crippled by
repeated broadsides. Several more minutes saw Anglesea lose 60
men killed or wounded by French fire. Seeing no other option, Phillips
surrendered the vessel, an action for which he would later be executed.
Following
her capture, the vessel was commissioned into the French Navy as L'Anglesea.
She remained in French service for eight years and was decommissioned in 1753.
“HMS Poole”
HMS Poole (1745) was a 44-gun 1741
Establishment frigate launched in 1745
and broken up in 1765.
“HMS Raven”
HMS Raven (1745) was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1745 and sold in 1763.
“HMS Centaur”
HMS Centaur (1746) was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1746 and sold in 1761.
“HMS Tavistock”
was
a 50-gun fourth rate ship
of the line of the Royal
Navy.
She
was built by Hugh Blaydes at Blaydes
Yard in Kingston upon Hull to the draught
specified in the 1745 Establishment. She was fitted out
in Portsmouth and launched on 26
August 1747.
She
had two commanders: Captain Justinian Nutt and Commodore Francis Holburne and
had a crew of 350 men. She served in North America and the Caribbean (based at
the Leeward
Islands.
Tavistock was converted to serve as a hulk in 1758 and was broken up
in Woolwich in 1768.
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"HMS Scarborough"
was a 20-gun ship built in 1756 which served
the Royal Navy until
1780. She had a crew of 160 men.
She was
ordered in June 1755 and was built at Blaydes Yard in Kingston-Upon-Hull over a period of around 9 months at a cost of £3400. She was
designed by Sir Thomas Slade. She was launched in April 1756
under the command of Captain Robert Routh.
In September 1757 she sailed for North America as part of the Seven Years' War. In May 1758 she captured the American ship Echo off Louisburg and in June took part in the Siege of Louisburg. In 1759 she was posted to Quebec and was involved in the Battle of Quebec under the command of Captain John Stott.
In 1760 she
returned to Louisburg and then went north to Newfoundland where she took place in
the Battle of Chaleur Bay on 8 July, where 4 British
ships defeated three French ships, still under the command of Stott.
She
returned to England for some years then set off in August 1762 for America and
the Leeward Islands. In 1765 she underwent a major
refit at Deptford and
was recommissioned in November 1766 under command of Captain Robert Gregory,
taking her to the Leeward Islands in April 1767 staying until 1769. She then
had three years of inactivity before a major refit at Chatham Docks. She was relaunched in June
1774 under the command of Captain James Chads who sailed her to Boston (in the aftermath of
the Boston Tea Party).
In October
1774 she returned to England under the command of Captain Andrew Barkley. She stayed only briefly and later in October left Plymouth carrying dispatches to
Boston arriving on 3 December. They anchored at Piscataqua River and on New Year's Eve 1774/5 hosted Governor John Wentworth in their celebrations. On 1 June 1777 she captured vessel
"St. Barbary", On 21 June "McPherson" off the coast of New
England, and on 23 June recaptured "Generous Friend". On 20
October 1777, she captured "Beverly" off the coast of Nova Scotia. On 12 October 1777 she,
or a ship named Scarboro, captured schooner "Lucy" on the Grand Banks. She remained in America
under Barkley until 1779, concerning various issues relating to the
Revolutionary War, but was finally paid off in April 1779 when she was fitted
with a copper bottom at Chatham at a cost of £4267 (more than her original total
cost).
She set off
to the Leeward Islands under Captain Robert Boyle Nicholas on 22 May 1780.
In August
1780 Captain Samuel Hood Walker took command. He was lost with the ship and crew on 5 October 1780
during the Great Hurricane of 1780 off San Domingo in the Caribbean.
Other Notable Crew
Alexander Fraser served as acting lieutenant in 1774 under Captain Barkley.
“HMS Rose”
Was a
20-gun Seaford-class post ship of the Royal Navy, built at Blaydes Yard in Hull, England in 1757 and in service
until 1779. Her activities in suppressing smuggling in the colony of Rhode Island provoked the formation of
what became the Continental Navy, the precursor of the
modern United States Navy. She was based at the North American station in the West Indies and
then used in the American Revolutionary War. A replica was built in 1970, then
modified to match HMS Surprise, and used in two films, Master
and Commander: Far Side of the World and Pirates of the
Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
Activities in North America
HMS Rose was
built in Hull, England in 1757, as a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship for the
British Royal Navy. In the Seven Years' War, Rose was in
service in the Channel and in the Caribbean. She was briefly considered for
service as Captain James Cook's vessel on his first exploration of the Pacific but was rejected as unable to stow the quantity of
provisions required for the planned circumnavigation of the globe. Instead,
she was sent to the North American station, en route to which she encountered Cook's ultimate choice of
vessel, HMS Endeavour, on 12 September 1768 when the two ships anchored alongside each other
at Funchal in
the Madeira Islands.
In
1774, Rose, under the command of Sir James Wallace, was sent to Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island to put an end to the
rampant smuggling that
had made Newport the fourth wealthiest city in America. Since Rose was
much larger than any American vessel of the time and Wallace was an effective
commander, smuggling activity quickly came to a halt. On 22 February 1775, she
captured sloop Lively carrying contraband goods. On the morning
of 2 April 1775, she ran aground on the north end of Goat Island, getting off
that evening. On 26 April 1775, she seized the sloops Diana and Abigail. On
2 May 1775, she seized a sloop owned by one of the Providence Paquet
clan. On 30 August 1775, Wallace attacked Stonington Connecticut, possibly
the first British incursion of the conflict. The presence of Rose threatened
to derail the economy of Newport. Local
merchants soon petitioned their colonial legislature to establish a navy and chase off Wallace and his crew. They
backed up their petitions by putting up funds to have a merchant vessel
converted for military use. This vessel was commissioned as the sloop-of-war Providence, which became the first naval command of John Paul Jones. Rhode Island declared its
independence from Britain on 4 May 1776, two full months before the rest of the
colonies. The petitioning of the Continental Congress to form a naval force to rid Narragansett Bay of Rose was
the impetus for the creation of the Continental Navy.
In July
1776, during the American Revolutionary War, Rose took part in the British invasion of New York,
firing on fortifications and making forays far up the Hudson River along with HMS Phoenix. Wallace was knighted for his actions in helping to force the army
of George Washington out of the state and put
it firmly under British control. She also patrolled the rest of the northeast
coast of America, suppressing efforts by American ships to engage in trade
and pressing their
sailors into Royal Navy service, and providing logistical support for the
British garrison in Boston.
Among her last recorded actions, occurring on 27 January 1779, was the capture of a prize in Chesapeake Bay.
Scuttled in Savannah, Georgia
Rose finally met her end in 1779 in Savannah, Georgia, no longer
seaworthy and unfit for service. The British scuttled Rose in a
narrow part of the channel, effectively blocking it. Consequently, both French and
American naval forces could not reach the city and Savannah remained in British
hands until the war's end. After the war Rose was destroyed to
clear the channel. Though only a few artefacts have been recovered by dredging
over the years, the United States Army Corps of
Engineers recovered three cannons
and an anchor from the Savannah River, believed to be from HMS Rose.
“HMS Rose replica”
In 1970
a replica of HMS Rose was built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She was also named HMS Rose and
initially intended as a "dockside attraction," used for display and
later sail training. In 1991 the ship gained the United States Coast Guard certification as a sail training vessel. She took part in many
maritime events, among them in the huge Tall Ship Race "Columbus 500"
in 1992. In 2001, she was purchased by Fox Studios, sailed to Southern
California, and altered to resemble HMS Surprise for the Peter Weir movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, based on the books by Patrick O'Brian. Renamed Surprise, the
vessel is now a part of the Maritime Museum of San Diego as a
dockside attraction.
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“HMS Temple”
was
a 68-gun third rate ship
of the line of the Royal
Navy,
launched on 3 November 1758 at Blaydes
Yard in Hull.
Commissioned
in January 1759 under the command of Washington Shirley, she saw service at
the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November.
The
following year, in March 1760, she sailed for the West Indies under Captain
Lucius O'Brien. With the aid of the cutter Griffin, in September of that
year, she recaptured the sloop Virgin off Grenada.
Temple operated as part of the fleet at the capture of Havana in 1762, under the
command of Julian Legge. From June to September, she was commanded by Chaloner
Ogle and
thereafter by Thomas Collingwood.
On
18 December of that year, en route home to England, she developed severe leaks
off Cape
Clear Island and foundered at sea, and was lost.
“HMS Tweed”
was
a 32-gun sailing frigate of the fifth
rate produced
for the Royal Navy. She was designed in 1757
by Sir
Thomas Slade, based on the lines of the smaller sixth
rate HMS Tartar, but with a 10-foot
midsection inserted. She was built in Blaydes
Yard in Kingston-Upon-Hull.
Tweed was commissioned in April 1759 under Captain William
Paston. On 15 March 1761 Tweed captured the French
privateer Hardi, off Cape Finisterre. Hardi, of
Bayonne, was armed with 10 guns and had a crew of 125 men. She had been out 18
days but had not captured anything. Tweed took Hardi into
Lisbon.
In
1763 command passed to Captain Charles Douglas until Tweed paid
off into reserve in April 1765. In November 1766 she was recommissioned under
Captain Thomas Collingwood. In 1770 command passed to Captain George
Collier until the ship paid off into reserve again
in 1771.
The
design was not considered to be very successful and no further ships of this
class were built, while the Tweed herself was sold in 1776
following a survey in 1771 that indicated that she would require a Middling Repair taking £3,500 and
nine months to complete.
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“HMS Mermaid “
was
a Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal
Navy.
She was first commissioned in April 1761 under Captain George Watson and built
in Blaydes Yard in Kingston-Upon-Hull.
Sometime
in May, 1777 she captured "Elizabeth". On 5 June 1777 she recaptured
"2 Betsys" off Cape Negro, Nova Scotia. On 30 July 1777 she captured "Hero"
off Cape Sable. On 29 August, 1777 she recaptured "Fanny" off
the Seal Islands. Sometime in September, 1777 recaptured "Sophia" off
Barrington. On 1 March, 1778 she captured schooner Rebecca off St. Georges
Bank. On
8 July 1778, the 50-gun Sagittaire and
the 64-gun Fantasque forced HMS Mermaid to
beach herself at Cape Henhlopen.
“HMS Ardent”
was a
64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built by contract at Blaydes Yard in Hull according to a design by Sir Thomas Slade, and launched on 13 August 1764 as the first ship of the Ardent-class. She had a somewhat turbulent career, being captured by the French in the action of
17 August 1779, and then re-captured by Britain in 1782.
The Ardent was
first commissioned in October 1774 under Captain Sir Charles Douglas. In 1778, under the command of
Captain George Keppel, she was with Admiral Lord Howe's squadron off New York, defending the town from the larger French fleet under the command of
Admiral d'Estaing. The two forces engaged in an
action off Rhode
Island on 11 August, though both fleets were
scattered by a storm over the following two days. On 23 December her
tender captured a prize off Cape Henry and another on 19 January 1779. She
returned home to Portsmouth and was paid off in January 1779.
June 1779
saw Ardent recommissioned under the command of Captain Phillip
Boteler, sailing from Plymouth in August to join Sir Charles Hardy in the Channel. According to the ship's logs, as many as 4/5 of the crew were landmen, and neither Boteler nor the captain of the Marlborough, in whose company Ardent was sailing, were aware that
a French fleet had been put to sea. Ardent encountered a fleet
two days after sailing, and after receiving the correct replies to the private
signal, ran down to meet them. The fleet however was a Franco-Spanish fleet,
somehow in possession of the Royal Navy signal code book, thus permitting the
correct response to Ardent's signals.
With Ardent within range, the French frigate Junon fired two broadsides before raising her colours. Three further frigates, and the Spanish ship of the line Princesa joined the action shortly afterward. In response, Ardent offered sporadic and inaccurate return fire before striking her colours to the vastly superior enemy force. At his subsequent court martial Captain Boteler blamed his failure to return fire on an inadequate supply of gunpowder for Ardent′s cannons, a statement strongly denied by the ship's gunner Archibald Macintyre who presented evidence there was enough powder for fifty minutes of vigorous engagement. The court martial rejected Boteler's claims, finding instead that the inexperience of the crew was the principal cause of Ardent′s failure to respond to the attack. Boteler was dismissed from the Navy for his failure to adequately defend his ship.
French career
On 2 May
1780, she departed Brest with the 7-ship and 3-frigate Expédition Particulière under
Admiral Ternay, escorting 36 transports
carrying troops to support the Continental Army in the War of
American Independence. The squadron comprised the
80-gun Duc de Bourgogne, under Ternay d'Arsac (admiral) and Médine (flag captain); the 74-gun Neptune, under Sochet Des Touches,
and Conquérant, under La Grandière; and the 64-gun Provence under Lombard, Ardent under Bernard de Marigny, Jason under La Clocheterie and Éveillé under Le Gardeur
de Tilly, and the frigates Surveillante under Villeneuve Cillart, Amazone under La Pérouse, and Bellone. Amazone, which
constituted the vanguard of the fleet, arrived at Boston on 11 June 1780.
She took
part in the Battle of
the Chesapeake on 5 September 1781 under
Captain Bernard de Marigny.
She took
part in the Battle of
the Saintes under Captain de Gouzillon. The British re-captured
her on 14 April 1782 following the battle, and recommissioned her that month
under Captain Richard Lucas. On 28 August 1783 the ship was renamed Tiger.
She was sold out of the service in June 1784.
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“HMS Diamond”
The
fourth HMS Diamond was a modified Lowestoffe-class fifth-rate frigate ordered in 1770, launched in 1774, but did not begin
service until 1776. Diamond served off the eastern North
American coast and shared in the capture at least one brig during the American
Revolutionary War. The frigate was paid off in 1779, but returned to service the same year after being coppered. Diamond sailed to the West Indies in 1780, was paid off a final time in 1783 and sold in 1784.
Construction and service
Diamond was ordered on 25 December 1770 as one of five fifth-rate frigates
of 32 guns each contained in the emergency frigate-building programme
inaugurated when the likelihood of war with Spain arose over the ownership of
the Falkland Islands (eight sixth-rate frigates of 28 guns each were ordered at the
same time). Sir Thomas Slade's design for the Lowestoffes was approved, but was revised
to produce a more rounded midships section; the amended design was approved on
3 January 1771 by Hawke's outgoing Admiralty Board, just before it was replaced. The contract to build Diamond was
awarded to Hodgson & Co at Hull and the Blaydes Yard the keel being laid in May 1771, and the frigate was launched on 28 May 1774, at a cost of £11,506.9.1d. She sailed from Hull on
13 June 1774 for Chatham Dockyard, where she remained for nearly two years before she was completed and
fitted out to the Navy Board's needs (for £4,169.8.6d) in February to May 1776.
Diamond was first commissioned in February 1776 under Captain Charles Fielding. On completion, she sailed for North America on 20 July 1776.
On 11
January, 1778 she captured merchant sloop "Prudence" off Dyer Island, Rhode
Island. She was sent into Newport, Rhode
Island. During the week of 15-21 March, 1778, she captured a schooner in
Duck Creek in Pennsylvania. On 24 May 1778 she, with HMS Raisonnable, captured and burned American schooner "Fly" off Cape Cod. On 27 May she, with HMS Raisonnable, captured American brig
"Sally" off Cape Cod. On 28 May she, with HMS Raisonnable, captured Connecticut
privateer "General McDougall" off Cape Cod. On 21 October 1778, Diamond and the brig Diligent stopped the brig Recovery at 42°17′N 69°00′W. Recovery was
sailing from Portsmouth to Charles Town with a cargo of lumber, and her captors sent her to
New York.
Fate
Diamond was paid off into ordinary in 1779, but after being coppered she was recommissioned in November 1779 under Captain William
Forster, and sailed for Jamaica on 13 April 1780. Diamond was finally paid off in
August 1783 and was sold at Plymouth (for £405) on 30 December 1784.
“HMS Boreas “
was
a modified Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal
Navy.
She was first commissioned in August 1775 under Captain Charles Thompson. She was built at Blaydes
Yard in
Hull to a design by Sir Thomas
Slade at
a cost of £10,000. She was fitted out at Chatham
Docks.[1]
On
an unknown date, probably between 4-20 November 1776, she captured
"Williamsburg Packet". On 13 December she captured schooner
"Ipswich". On 15 December 1776 she captured schooners
"Polly" and "John". On 20 December she captured the schooner
"Theo and Ann". On 25 December she captured sloop "Polly".
Sometime between late December 1776 and early March 1777 she captured sloops
"Will" and "Hope". On 16 March she captured schooners
"Cannon", "Farmer", "Juliet", and
"Happy-Return". On 20 March she captured schooner "Mary"
and probably sloop "Betsy". She captured an unknown sloop and brig
probably between 14-19 May, 1777, and an unknown schooner on 22 May. She
captured the brig "Dublin" between 22 May and 27 June.
In
1778 she underwent a refit in Plymouth having a copper
bottom fitted at a cost of £5500.
In
July 1779 she saw action in the Battle
of Grenada under the command of Captain Thompson.
On
31 August 1779 Boreas, still under Captain Thompson, captured the
French corvette Compas,
of eighteen 6-pounder guns, which was carrying a cargo of sugar. Compas,
which was armed en flute, put up
resistance for about 20 minutes, with the result that she suffered nine men
killed and wounded before she struck. Boreas was
part of a squadron under the command of Rear Admiral of the Red Hyde Parker on the Jamaica station.
Horatio Nelson was a Senior Naval
Officer of the Leeward Islands from 1784 to 1787 in Boreas.
Boreas was used as a slop ship from 1797 until her sale in 1802.
HMS Bounty II replica Ship
“HMS Bounty”, also known as “HM Armed Vessel Bounty,” was a
British merchant
ship that the Royal Navy purchased in 1787 for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to
the South
Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to the British
West Indies. That mission was never
completed owing to a 1789 mutiny led by acting lieutenant Fletcher
Christian, an incident now popularly
known as the Mutiny on
the Bounty. The mutineers later
burned Bounty while she was moored at Pitcairn Island in the Southern
Pacific Ocean in 1790. An American
adventurer helped land several remains of Bounty in 1957.
Origin and description
Bounty was originally the collier Bethia, which was reportedly built in 1784 at Blaydes Yard in Hull, Yorkshire. The Royal Navy purchased her for £1,950 on 23 May 1787 (equivalent to £271,000 in 2023), and
subsequently refitted the ship and renamed
her Bounty. The ship was relatively small at 215 tons, but had
three masts and was full-rigged. After conversion for the breadfruit expedition, she was equipped with
four 4 pdr (1.8 kg) cannon and ten swivel guns.
1787 breadfruit expedition
Main article: Mutiny on
the Bounty
Preparations
The Royal
Navy had purchased Bethia for the sole purpose of carrying out
the mission of acquiring breadfruit plants from Tahiti, which would then be transported to the British
West Indies as a cheap source of food
for the region's slaves. English naturalist Sir Joseph Banks originated the idea and promoted it in Britain, recommending
Lieutenant William
Bligh to the Admiralty as the mission's commander. Bligh, in turn, was promoted in rank
via a prize offered by the Royal
Society of Arts.
In June
1787, Bounty was refitted at Deptford. The great cabin was converted to house the potted breadfruit plants, and gratings
were fitted to the upper deck. William Bligh was appointed commanding
lieutenant of Bounty on 16 August 1787 at the age of 33, after
a career that included a tour as sailing master of the sloop Resolution during the third
voyage of James Cook, which lasted from 1776 to
1780. The ship's
complement consisted of 46 men, with
Bligh as the sole commissioned officer, two civilian gardeners to care for the
breadfruit plants, and the remaining crew consisting of enlisted Royal Navy
personnel.
Voyage out
On 23
December 1787, Bounty sailed from Spithead for Tahiti. For a full month, the crew attempted to take the ship west, around
South America's Cape Horn, but adverse weather prevented this. Bligh then proceeded east,
rounding the southern tip of Africa (Cape Agulhas) and crossing the width of the Indian Ocean, a route 7,000 miles longer. During the outward voyage, Bligh
demoted Sailing
Master John Fryer, replacing him with Fletcher
Christian. This act seriously damaged the relationship between Bligh and Fryer, and
Fryer later claimed that Bligh's act was entirely personal.
Bligh is
commonly portrayed as the epitome of an abusive sailing captains, but this
portrayal has recently come into dispute. Caroline Alexander points out in her
2003 book The Bounty that Bligh was relatively lenient
compared with other British naval officers. Bligh enjoyed the patronage
of Sir Joseph Banks, a wealthy botanist and influential figure in Britain at the time.
That, together with his experience sailing with Cook, familiarity with
navigation in the area, and local customs were probably important factors in
his appointment.
Bounty reached Tahiti, then called "Otaheite", on 26 October
1788, after ten months at sea. The crew spent five months there collecting and
preparing 1,015 breadfruit plants to be transported to the West Indies. Bligh
allowed the crew to live ashore and care for the potted breadfruit plants, and
they became socialised to the customs and culture of the Tahitians. Many of the
seamen and some of the "young gentlemen" had themselves tattooed in native fashion. Master's Mate and Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian married Maimiti, a
Tahitian woman. Other warrant officers and seamen were also said to have formed "connections"
with native women.
Mutiny and destruction of the
ship
Main article: Mutiny on
the Bounty
Plan of the Bounty's launch
Mutineers Turning Bligh and Crew Adrift, by Robert Dodd, 1790
After five
months in Tahiti, Bounty set sail with her breadfruit cargo on
4 April 1789. Some 1,300 mi (2,100 km) west of Tahiti, near Tonga, mutiny broke out on 28 April
1789. Despite strong words and threats heard on both sides, the ship was taken
bloodlessly and apparently without struggle by any of the loyalists except
Bligh himself. Of the 42 men on board aside from Bligh and Christian, 22 joined
Christian in mutiny, two were passive, and 18 remained loyal to Bligh.
The
mutineers ordered Bligh, two midshipmen, the surgeon's mate (Ledward), and the ship's clerk into the ship's boat. Several more men voluntarily joined Bligh rather than remain aboard.
Bligh and his men sailed the open boat 30 nmi (56 km) to Tofua in search
of supplies but were forced to flee after attacks by hostile natives resulted
in the death of one of the men.
Bligh then
undertook an arduous journey to the Dutch settlement of Coupang, located over 3,500 nmi (6,500 km) from Tofua. He safely
landed there 47 days later, having lost no men during the voyage except the one
killed on Tofua.
The
mutineers sailed for the island of Tubuai, where they tried to settle. After three months of bloody conflict with
the natives, however, they returned to Tahiti. Sixteen of the mutineers –
including the four loyalists who had been unable to accompany Bligh – remained
there, taking their chances that the Royal Navy would not find them and bring
them to justice.
HMS Pandora was sent out by the Admiralty in November 1790 in pursuit of Bounty,
to capture the mutineers and bring them back to Britain to face a court martial. She arrived in March 1791 and captured fourteen men within two weeks;
they were locked away in a makeshift wooden prison on Pandora's
quarterdeck. The men called their cell "Pandora's box". They remained
in their prison until 29 August 1791 when Pandora was wrecked
on the Great
Barrier Reef with the loss of 35 lives,
including one loyalist and three mutineers (Stewart, Sumner, Skinner, and
Hildebrand).
Immediately
after setting the sixteen men ashore in Tahiti in September 1789, Fletcher
Christian, eight other crewmen, six Tahitian men, and 11 women, one with a
baby, set sail in Bounty hoping to elude the Royal Navy.
According to a journal kept by one of Christian's followers, the Tahitians were
actually kidnapped when Christian set sail without warning them, the purpose of
this being to acquire the women. The mutineers passed through the Fiji and Cook Islands, but feared that they would be found there.
Continuing
their quest for a safe haven, on 15 January 1790 they rediscovered Pitcairn Island, which had been misplaced on the Royal Navy's charts. After the
decision was made to settle on Pitcairn, livestock and other provisions were
removed from Bounty. To prevent the ship's detection, and anyone's
possible escape, the ship was burned on 23 January 1790 in what is now
called Bounty Bay.
The
mutineers remained undetected on Pitcairn until February 1808, when the sole
remaining mutineer John Adams , and the surviving Tahitian women and their children were
discovered by the Boston sealer Topaz, commanded by Captain Mayhew Folger of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Adams gave to Folger the Bounty's azimuth compass and marine
chronometer.
Seventeen
years later, in 1825, HMS Blossom, on a voyage of exploration under Captain Frederick
William Beechey, arrived on Christmas Day off
Pitcairn and spent 19 days there. Beechey later recorded this in his 1831
published account of the voyage, as did one of his crew, John Bechervaise, in
his 1839 Thirty-Six Years of a Seafaring Life by an Old Quarter Master.
Beechey wrote a detailed account of the mutiny as recounted to him by the last
survivor, Adams. Bechervaise, who described the life of the islanders, says he
found the remains of Bounty and took some pieces of wood from
it which were turned into souvenirs such as snuff boxes.
Bounty's movements in the Pacific Ocean
After the mutiny, under Christian's command
Bligh's open-boat journey to
Coupang
The details
of the voyage of Bounty are very well documented, largely due
to the effort of Bligh to maintain an accurate log before, during, and after
the actual mutiny. Bounty's crew list is also well-chronicled.
Bligh's
original log remained intact throughout his ordeal and was used as a major
piece of evidence in his own trial for the loss of Bounty, as well
as the subsequent trial of captured mutineers. The original log is presently
maintained at the State Library of New South Wales, with available transcripts in both print and electronic format.
Mission log
1787 16 August: William Bligh is
ordered to command a breadfruit gathering expedition to Tahiti
3 September: Bounty launched from
the drydock at Deptford
4–9 October: Bounty navigated with
a partial crew to an ammunition loading station, south of Deptford
10–12 October: Onload of arms and weapons at Long Reach
15 October – 4 November: Navigated to Spithead for final crew and stores onload
29 November: Made anchor at St Helens,
Isle of Wight
23 December: Departed English waters for Tahiti
1788
5–10 January: Anchored off Tenerife, Canary Islands
5 February: Crossed equator at 21.50 degrees West
26 February: Marked at 100 leagues from the eastern coast of Brazil
23 March: Arrived Tierra del Fuego
9 April: Entered the Strait of
Magellan
25 April: Abandoned attempt to round Cape Horn and turned east
22 May: Within sight of the Cape of Good Hope
24 May – 29 June: Anchored at Simon's Bay
28 July: Within sight of Saint Paul's Island, west
of Van
Diemen's Land
20 August – 2 September: Anchored Van Diemen's Land
19 September: Past the southern tip of New Zealand
26 October: Arrived Tahiti
25 December: Shifted mooring to
"Toahroah" harbour, Pare "Oparre", Tahiti. Bounty ran
aground.
1789
4 April: Weighed anchor from the harbour at Pare, Tahiti
23–25 April: Anchored for provisions off Annamooka (Tonga)
26 April: Departed Annamooka for the West Indies
28 April: Mutiny – Captain Bligh and loyal crew
members set adrift in Bounty's launch
From this point, Bligh's mission log reflects the
voyage of the Bounty launch towards the Dutch East Indies
29 April: Bounty launch arrives
at Tofua
2 May: Bounty launch castaways
flee Tofua after being attacked by natives
28 May: Landfall on a small island north of New Hebrides. Named "Restoration Island" by Captain Bligh
30–31 May: Bounty launch transits
to a second nearby island, named "Sunday Island"
1–2 June: Bounty launch transits
42 miles to a third island, named "Turtle Island"
3 June: Bounty launch sails into
the open ocean towards Australia
13 June: Bounty launch lands
at Timor
14 June: Launch castaways circle Timor and land
at Coupang. Mutiny is reported to Dutch authorities
Bligh's mission log from this point reflects his
return to England onboard various merchant vessels and sailing ships
20 August – 10 September: Sailed via schooner to Pasuruan, Java
11–12 September: In transit to Surabaya
15–17 September: In transit to the town of Gresik, Madura
Strait
18–22 September: In transit to Semarang
26 September – 1 October: In transit to Batavia (Jakarta)
16 October: Sailed for Europe on board the
Dutch packet SS Vlydte
16 December: Arrived Cape of Good Hope
1790
13 January: Sailed from Cape of Good Hope for
England
13 March: Arrived Portsmouth Harbour
Crew list
starting with Fletcher Christian
John Fryer and Peter Heywood
John Adams aka Alexander Smith
In the
immediate wake of the mutiny, all but four of the loyal crew joined Bligh in
the long boat for the voyage to Timor and eventually made it safely back to
England, unless otherwise noted in the table below. Four were detained against
their will on Bounty for their needed skills and lack of space
on the long boat. The mutineers first returned to Tahiti, where most of the
survivors were later captured by Pandora and taken to England
for trial. Nine mutineers continued their flight from the law and eventually
settled on Pitcairn Island, where all but one died before their fate became
known to the outside world.
Discovery of the wreck
HMAS Bounty bell
Luis Marden rediscovered the remains of Bounty in January 1957. After
spotting remains of the rudder (which had been found in 1933 by Parkin Christian, and is still
displayed in the Fiji Museum in Suva), he persuaded his editors and writers to let him dive off
Pitcairn Island, where the rudder had been found. Despite the warnings of one
islander – "Man, you gwen be dead as a hatchet!" Marden dived for several days in the dangerous swells near the
island and found the remains of the ship: a rudder pin, nails, a ships boat
oarlock, fittings and a Bounty anchor that he raised. He subsequently met with Marlon Brando to counsel him on his role as Fletcher
Christian in the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. Later in life, Marden wore cuff links made of nails from Bounty. Marden also dives on the
wreck of Pandora and leaves a Bounty nail
with Pandora.
Some of
the Bounty's remains, such as the ballast stones, are still partially visible in the waters of Bounty Bay.
The last
of Bounty's four 4-pounder cannons was recovered in 1998 by an
archaeological team from James
Cook University and was sent to the
Queensland Museum in Townsville to be stabilised through lengthy conservation
treatment via electrolysis over a period of nearly 40 months. The gun was subsequently
returned to Pitcairn Island, where it has been placed on display in a new
community hall. Several other pieces of the ship were found but local law
forbids removal of such items from the island.
Modern reconstructions
US Coast
Guard photo of the 1960 Bounty replica sinking
during Hurricane Sandy in
October 2012.
1978 reconstruction of the Bounty
When the 1935 film Mutiny on the Bounty was made, sailing vessels (often with assisting engines) were still common; existing vessels were adapted to act as Bounty and Pandora. For Bounty, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) had the wooden 19th century schooner Lily transformed into the three masted full square-rigged Bounty. Metha Nelson, which had been featured in movies from 1931 on, was given the role of Pandora. Both reconstructions, the modern Bounty and Pandora, sailed from the US west coast to Tahiti for film shoots at the original location. A model ship was built in two parts to serve as a set design in an MGM studio.
For
the 1962 film, a
new Bounty was constructed in 1960 in Nova Scotia. For much of 1962 to 2012,
she was owned by a not-for-profit organisation whose primary aim was to sail
her and other square-rigged sailing ships, and she sailed the world to appear
at harbours for inspections, and take paying passengers, to recoup running
costs. For long voyages, she took on a volunteer crew.
On 29
October 2012, sixteen Bounty crew members abandoned the ship
off the coast of North Carolina after getting caught in the high seas brought on by Hurricane Sandy. The ship sank, according to Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, at 12:45 UTC Monday 29 October 2012 and two crew members, including
Captain Robin Walbridge, were reported missing. The captain was not found and presumed dead on
2 November 2012. It was later reported that the Coast Guard had recovered
one of the missing crew members, Claudene Christian, a descendant of Fletcher
Christian of the original Bounty. Christian was found to be
unresponsive and pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in North Carolina.
A
second Bounty replica, named HMAV Bounty, was built in New Zealand in 1979 and used in the 1984 film The
Bounty. The hull is constructed of
welded steel over-sheathed with timber. For many years she served the tourist
excursion market from Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia and appeared in the Tamil language Indian
(1996 film), before being sold to HKR International Limited in October 2007. She was then a tourist attraction (also used for
charter, excursions and sail training) based in Discovery Bay, on Lantau
Island in Hong Kong, and was given an additional Chinese name She was
decommissioned on 1 August 2017. The company did not disclose the ship's fate,
but it then headed to Thailand. Since April 2018 the ship is indeed moored at a
shipyard in Phra Samut Chedi at the mouth of the Chao Phraya river in Thailand.
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