Independent Reviews
The literature and film industry abound with tales of the mutiny on His Majesty’s Armed Vessel Bounty. HMAV Bounty (formerly Bethia) was a 90-foot long converted merchant ship displacing 215 tons. She was armed with four 4-pounders and ten swivel guns and sailed on her historic voyage with a complement of 46 officers and men. Lorbach revisits the oft-told story of the events surrounding the mutiny episode and some subsequent incidents (see Voyage of HMS Pandora by Captain Edward Edwards RN). In about 300 sometimes-rambling pages, he proffers his theory about what really happened with selective but intriguing evidence.
Bounty’s captain was Lieutenant William Bligh, an ambitious man who started life in the British Navy as a ship’s boy (captain’s steward) and, sometime later, appeared as sailing master on HMS Resolution under famed Captain James Cook. Bligh was the son of a Plymouth excise and customs official (not the best background for rising in a class-conscious Royal Navy). The Lieutenant was an enigma. Short in stature with a prominent facial scar, he was effeminate in his demeanor, had a curt temper, displayed a sadistic streak, drank heavily and was likely bisexual. Generally a poor leader, Bligh displayed violent, unpredictable mood swings. The author notes that these symptoms are consistent with bipolar disorder or manic-depressive illness, a disorder that causes unusual shifts in temperament, energy, activity, and the ability consistently to perform ordinary tasks. (This psychological diagnosis is the author’s speculation.) On the positive side, Bligh was intelligent, a good navigator, and a creditable cartographer. A clever and successful schemer, he rose to the rank of Vice Admiral – no small feat.
The Bounty’s primary mission was to first harvest, and then transport, viable breadfruit plants to British colonies. The large melon-like fruit was a good source of nutrients for slaves working in warm climates where these plants could easily propagate. According to the author, this mission was a fool’s errand. There was no vital need for Coral Sea breadfruit. Much closer than Tahiti, a seeded species of breadfruit grew in East India. Similar to an African variety, it was more to the slaves’ liking. Meanwhile, other species were already growing in the British botanical gardens at St. Vincent and Jamaica. Secondly, even if one could justify the breadfruit expedition, Lorbach makes a compelling case that the size and configuration of Bounty was a poor choice for a mission designed to transport live plant specimens for propagation.
Bligh’s secondary personal mission was to be the first British naval officer to safely transit the dangerous uncharted Torres Strait just north of the Australian Continent.
Such a voyage was unlikely in a deep drafted vessel like Bounty, especially when loaded with a cargo of breadfruit plants and a full crew. Lorbach analyzes many of the characters in this drama, especially Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian, gardeners David Nelson and William Brown, and some minor players such as surgeon John Huggan and steward John Smith. Nelson and Christian spend the most time at center stage and, after Bligh, are the most interesting men onboard.
Nelson’s job was to obtain the breadfruit plants, care for them once aboard, and assure their survival to Bounty’s destination. Lorbach spends many pages explaining why this mission was probably doomed from the start and how, once Bligh apparently realized it, he grew fearful of the career consequences of such a failure. He may then have thought of a dubious way to salvage his reputation with the Admiralty in London.
Christian, the second in command, was popular with the crew and, according to the author, may have spurned Bligh in a murky homosexual relationship. The two men had been close for much of the voyage, dining together at least three times a week. In fact, Bligh allowed Christian free access to his personal liquor stash in the captain’s cabin. Before the mutiny, Christian bore the brunt of several of Bligh’s public tirades, which may have helped precipitate the revolt against Bligh’s command. There may also have been a hidden twist to the tale as usually related – a causal arrow pointing in an unanticipated direction. The breadfruit mission was obviously doomed, but a calculated risk might salvage Bligh’s reputation. According to Lorbach, the mutiny may have either been agreed upon between Bligh and Christian beforehand, or at least planned by Bligh to take place at a certain favorable location, so that when given the ship’s launch, a crew and supplies, he would stand a good chance of sailing through the Torres Strait. His 3,618 nautical mile, (4,618 statute miles) 25-day voyage to Timor in a 23-foot open boat did bring a measure of success from the notoriously aborted voyage.
Lorbach examines many aspects of the Bounty incident in great detail and, in an unusual chapter, graphically describes the sexual mores of the South Sea islanders, particularly those who inhabited Tahiti. Focusing on the sexual freedoms that were the native custom is important because it explains why many of the mutineers wished to return to an idyllic South Sea island life rather than return to cold, dank England under the command of an often-tyrannical captain.
Because Lorbach frequently shifts focus in his chapters, Conspiracy On The Bounty can be a frustrating read. His prose, while excellent at times, is uneven and his digressions are frequently redundant. Conan Doyle wrote about theorizing from incomplete data in A Scandal in Bohemia. In the novel Sherlock Holmes noted, “insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” Similarly, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish Lorbach’s facts from his theories.
In spite of these flaws, the work is far more than just another “Mutiny on the Bounty” book. The author takes the reader on a journey to the realm of breadfruit horticulture, as well as what it was like inside this great floating greenhouse. This is done in richer detail and depth than in previous Bounty stories. Lorbach succeeds in capturing one’s imagination about the events that may really have happened and why. The validity of his theories is still an open question, but it is a thought-provoking read.
Dr. Louis Arthur Norton
Professor Emeritus, University of Connecticut
Canadian Nautical Research Society – Société canadienne pour la recherche nautique. Conspiracy on the Bounty book review published in Vol. XXV, No. 1, pp. 95-96, January 2015 issue of The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nor.
Conspiracy on the Bounty is a must for all Bountymaniacs, Fletcherphiles and Bligh-haters, and for those who have a passing interest in British colonial and naval history. A well-balanced blend of drama and action that’s more Trevor Howard than Mel Gibson.
David Hunt
Winner of the 2014 Indie Award for Non-Fiction
Conspiracy on the Bounty is a concise 298 page edition of The Great Bounty Conspiracy, a textbook edition I reviewed in 2011. For most readers, all that matters remains in this shortened edition. Karl Lorbach’s extensively researched work has shown how twenty-first century science made it possible to look deeper into Bligh’s records; not only at what he wrote, but equally importantly what he omitted to write. When Bligh wrote up his journals he had no clue they would be examined like the author has done; especially about his cargo of breadfruit plants. It seems Bligh’s mission to Tahiti in 1787 was not just to fetch fodder for slaves; apparently the British had more strategic things on their mind. It was Bligh’s breadfruit itself, especially the physiology of the plant, with which the author has uncovered what Bligh went to great lengths to hide.
Without doubt this controversial book obliterates the popular legend embedded in our culture. Yet with all the hype about the Bounty, its voyage rampant with unbelievable events, chapter-by-chapter the author has actually made the mutiny more credible. Against this revised background the biggest surprise is saved until last where Bligh, in a seditious act of bloody-mindedness, is accused and exposed for having deliberately agitated Fletcher Christian to mutiny. Conspiracy on the Bounty, subtitled Bligh’s Convenient Mutiny, lives up to its very name. What has eluded us for over two hundred years is now revealed to quite literally be an ‘inconvenient truth’.
If you are a Blighophile, bent upon keeping the romantic legend alive, this is still a book you should read because this particular piece of history has been re-written in a very persuasive manner. If you are keen on knowing what really happened on the Bounty, then you will find the book crammed full of fresh and convincing material. For my part Conspiracy on the Bounty is more than an addition to Bountiana; rather a welcome conclusion to the genre. If the buck does stop with this fascinating read, for the benefit of movie buffs like myself let’s hope that a new film based upon this dramatic exposé on Bligh follows soon.
Brett Shorthouse
Natural History documentary producer
Australia
Karl Lorbach has written a book that is bound to shake to the core any lovers of the accepted history of the mutiny on the Bounty. Conspiracy on the Bounty, taglined Bligh’s Convenient Mutiny, was 10 years in the making. Karl says it was not agenda driven, and he never planned to be an author, but certain discoveries he made throughout his life and through his interest in maritime history prompted him to write the book. “So many things came into my face, I just thought I’d have to make the time to put pen to paper,’’ the former marine engineer and boat builder says.
Karl says there are hundreds of books and a whole industry surrounding Bountiana but he believes his book to be original because he questions whether Bligh was put out at all by the mutiny on the Bounty instigated by Fletcher Christian, and examines why he might have made so little effort to suppress it. “Not since 1987, when John Bach published The Bligh Notebook, has a single shred of new evidence been tabled or published,’’ he says.
Karl’s book, in fact, suggests that it may have been in Bligh’s interest that the mutiny happened because his mission was failing. “I did worldwide research and the bibliography tells its own story,’’ Karl says, “and what’s in the book is only the tip of the iceberg. “Conspiracy on the Bounty challenges that neither Bligh nor Christian were martyrs because neither individual deserves that stamp. “If my book is confronting, it’s only because some will insist upon retaining the romantic melancholy of the legend, a legend so sacred that no investigator must be allowed to crack its shell.’’
The Cairns author’s thesis centres on the cargo of breadfruit that Bligh was cultivating on Tahiti and had on board the Bounty. Used as food for slaves, it was said to be a precious commodity at the time and Bligh’s mission was to bring it to the colonies. “The book relies on the breadfruit evidence,” Karl says, “not only the plant physiology but also the strategic empire – why it was necessary at the time”. Karl believes there was a cover-up about Bligh’s breadfruit plants and the strategic nature of his voyages.
According to Karl, Bligh’s miseries were three-fold; he believed the French were going to win the breadfruit race as they had ships ahead of him en route to the Torres Strait, the plants he had onboard were not flourishing despite his claims to the contrary – a missing logbook does nothing to rebut this theory, and his ship was entirely unsuitable to navigate the Torres Strait. All these reasons that would have made his mission a failure, a failure he never had to endure because of the mutiny.
Read the full interview with Karl at:
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2013/07/06/244873_lifestyle.html
Denise Carter
The Cairns Post
(The Cairns Post Pty Ltd is part of News Limited)
I enjoyed your book very much. It is very readable and the way you have brought all the strands together, after first unraveling them from the bountymania myth is great. I agree with your conclusion that Bligh forsook his friendship with Christian to save his own hide (and his career). Such unprincipled behavior is only too common in society as it always was and always will be. The greatest fear of the perpetrators of such behaviour is that of being found out and being exposed for it. Therein lays the core of Bligh’s cowardice. It could be said of Bligh when he returned to England … ‘thou dost protest too much’.
You are spot on in stating that the last thing both the Admiralty and Banks wanted was for Bligh to have been exposed for what he really was as this would have caused a great deal of embarrassment in an already turbulent political climate.
With regards to Bligh’s cowardice, it should be mentioned that he did go on to serve with some distinction as Captain in HMS Director at the Battle of Camperdown in 1796, and then as Captain of HMS Gatton under Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. Obviously he wasn’t afraid of a stoush as such, however he would have sold his own mother to gain a career or a pecuniary advantage. Thus I think he was an amoral person and certainly no gentleman as you’ve pointed out in your book.
I am absolutely at one with you when you debunk the magnitude of the Launch voyage and the way the venture has become the stuff of legends. As you rightfully point out, any group of healthy and experienced seamen given a vessel such as the Launch, barring unusual weather, would be capable of replicating such a voyage.
All in all an absorbing read which I thoroughly enjoyed. An absolute must read for all those who profess an interest in Bligh and the Bounty.
Capt. Cor (Paul) de Waard
Master Mariner & Great Barrier Reef Marine Pilot
A very different conspiracy on the Bounty
This is an aptly titled re-examination of the most famous mutiny in naval history. It’s chock full of detail and precise footnotes to support an intriguing premise – that the mutiny led by Fletcher Christian was in fact a convenient way out for an embattled Captain Bligh. Author Karl Lorbach argues a compelling case that the mutiny gave Bligh a dignified exit from a naval mission that was already failing and about to get much worse. Not only were the precious breadfruit cultivars collected in Tahiti already dying, but the prospect of a return journey planned through the maze of coral reefs guarding the Torres Strait had both Bligh and his crew grumbling in fear. Amazingly Bligh offered little real argument and no physical resistance to prevent the loss of his vessel – unheard of behavior by a royal navy captain in those days. Maybe Bligh calculated that he and his remaining loyal crewmembers stood a better chance of surviving and reaching Batavia in the small nimble craft in which they were set adrift. The sluggish & clumsy Bounty was poorly suited to navigating through the coral reefs that lay ahead. Instead it was the loyalist’s voyage in a cramped open boat that launched Bligh’s reputation as a master navigator and navy hero, with some help from Admiralty spin doctors of the period.
There are plenty of sub plots on offer. It was fascinating to learn about the delicate sexual politics that underscored the long stopover in Tahiti. What’s more two of Bligh’s daily journals were re-written and likely carefully edited before their release to the Admiralty and the public. We are reminded that Bligh was later embroiled in two further ship mutinies and an embarrassing rebellion while he was governor of NSW. That made me wonder about his wider failings as a leader of men.
My only minor criticism of this book is that Lorbach spent a bit much time detailing the failure of the breadfruit mission, relative to the many other intriguing sub plots. Even the most ardent fan of Bounty history will find something new and challenging to ponder here.
Mark Ferns
independent science writer & documentary director
It’s brilliant! Congratulations for so much work and effort. It deserves to be read by all those folk interested in history.
John Hagan
Renowned artist and creator of the classic ‘Bounty’ seascape and portrait series.
I have read your book and found it interesting – although I must admit that it deserves a lot more attention than I was able to give it! The amount of research and detail is amazing and I think there will be much interest among history buffs. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.
Mark Steedman
Cairns Books
More reviews coming soon…