Countdown — 9 Days To Mutiny !

As pressure was mounting on Bligh, on 19 April 1789 he made this curious remark in his journal: ‘Mustered all Hands to their Stations and Saw them Clean and I afterwards exercised them at Maneuvering the Ship’. To halt the ship’s progress, way out in the Pacific Ocean, to carry out exercises to maneuver the ship, is a sure sign that Bligh was anything but confident about the sailing abilities of his men. Certainly he was unnerved at going aground at Tahiti (as he did), for if his sailors couldn’t execute such a simple maneuver without a fiasco, then quite understandably, he feared what calamities could occur upon entering the reef strewn area of Torres Strait. Maneuvering a ship like the Bounty in the mazelike channels and confines of coral reefs require much greater skill and dexterity than doing so in open waters.

Bligh was the only commissioned officer on board and though most of his men weren’t novices, it seems only about twelve had any practice in sailing among tropical reefs. After enduring frustrating weather and hundreds of sail adjustments, obviously Bligh found flaws in his watch-crew’s agility. Either the men were out of practice or lacked ability; whatever was their failing, it seems Bligh had due cause to be alarmed. Anyhow no sooner were the maneuvering exercises over than the weather deteriorated again and the sailors were ordered back aloft.

(Picture: Scribner’s, “Sailing Days: On The Yard-Arm; Furling The Mainsail” (1911) Fischer – 013.)