Captain Bligh's remarkable story of survival

Dodd Bounty

The Bounty mutineers set Captain William Bligh adrift with 18 men in an eight-metre, two-masted launch. He had been allowed to take some navigational equipment and papers, and enough food to last for five days. The 19 castaways tried to supplement their rations with food from Tofua. All but one escaped with their lives following an attack by hostile Tofuans. Fearing to make another landfall, Bligh decided to head straight for Timor-about 3600 (nautical) miles (about 6480 km) away.

"We had no relief with the day save its light. The sea was constantly breaking over us and kept two persons bailing, and we had no choice how to steer for we were obliged to keep before the waves to avoid filling the boat."

The cold and wet conditions in the launch were agonising. The exhausted men bailed constantly. What little food they had quickly became wet and almost inedible.

"The misery we suffered this night exceeded the preceding. The sea flew over us with great force and kept us bailing with horror and anxiety. At dawn of day I found everyone in a most distressed condition and I began to fear that another such night would put an end to the lives of several, who seemed no longer able to support their sufferings. I served an allowance of two teaspoonfuls of rum; after drinking which, having wrung our clothes and taken our breakfast of bread and water, we became a little refreshed."

They endured these conditions for four weeks before sighting New Holland (Australia). Their journey had taken them past the Friendly Islands (Tonga), Fiji and the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) Finally, they had reached the Australian mainland, landing on an island east of Cape Weymouth, which Bligh named Restoration Island. Here they found water and scavenged for food. Collecting clamshells they made a nourishing broth.

After two days, threat of attack by apparently hostile Aborigines prompted the castaways to resume their journey. Turning from the Torres Strait into the Arafura Sea, all the dangers of the open seas faced them again. Again they had to bail constantly; and again Bligh cut the rations, fearing there would be insufficient to last the journey to Timor. Despite their weakness-and a daily intake of food that probably amounted to only 345 calories and resulted in a weight loss of approximately 20 kg per man-they eventually made it to Timor.

Their ordeal had lasted 48 days. Bligh's reputation as a superb seaman largely stems from this episode. (Bligh's notebook containing his observations of the open boat voyage is in the National Library of Australia. It has been transcribed and a facsimile published: John Bach (Ed)-The Bligh Notebook, 1986, National Library of Australia.)

Bligh and his "loyal" crew eventually managed to get home to England in a Dutch East Indies Company vessel called Vlijt. His report of the mutiny was hand-delivered to the Admiralty in March 1790.

And the Pandora is dispatched-the sequel to the Bounty mutiny begins …

There are two more remarkable open boat voyages associated with this time and place in history-see The schooner Matavai and The Bryants.