News

THE DOG DIDN’T BARK

What could this common Sherlock Holmes metaphor have to do with the mutiny on HMAV Bounty in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? An alternative expression for the concept could be ‘the absence of the dog’s bark’, signifying when a statement relies on factual correspondence for its truth, the lack of pertinent facts suggests a […]

LIEUTENANT BLIGH’S IMPERIAL BREADFRUIT

Lieutenant Bligh’s Imperial Breadfruit. Extract: “1787 was a time when freedom for Jamaican slaves was still some years away, an epoch of struggle confronted abolitionists, sugar planters owed their prosperity to humans under bondage, and China teas were being sweetened but at a bitter human cost. For those who connived to keep the trade acceptable, […]

THE MAN WHO ATE AN INNOCENT ALBATROSS

The Man Who Ate An Innocent Albatross The center illustration shown here is cliché art, olden day disinformation spin of a blundering spiritless Governor Bligh, his diplomatic acumen tested and broken. Whether accurate or not the historic artwork, “The Arrest of Governor Bligh”, held by the National Museum of Australia of Bligh being dragged from […]

AN AFTERWORD ON JOSEPH BANKS AND HIS BREADFRUIT

My works about William Bligh and Joseph Banks are written from the strategic side of the breadfruit voyages. This Afterword is from the botanic side of the beach with Banks wearing two social hats: one as the naturalist and the other as the facilitator. Did the plan to feed breadfruit to slaves have any basis […]

CAPTAIN BLIGH’S FANTASY

CAPTAIN BLIGH’S FACEBOOK FANTASY If Lieutenant William Bligh had access to Facebook how might he have designed his Profile? This steampunk caricature may well have triggered Bligh’s weird alter ego. Someone once opened a Facebook account in my own name and threw in a hundred incognito Friends to boot. Facebook eventually, reluctantly, took it down, […]

A SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BREADFRUIT PLANTS

DR ROBERTO E. CORONEL  (1939/2016) The sleuth who unearthed Bligh’s “Big Breadfruit Lie” RIP: Dr Roberto Coronel — eminent Research Professor of tropical and sub-tropical fruits, College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines. On 24 March 2016 a humanitarian, and friend, passed away.  My sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of Dr […]

THE HOWLER

A HOWLER BEHIND THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY ! Seeds of failure of the Bounty expedition were sown before Bligh stepped onboard at Deptford. By then, Joseph Banks, operative manager of the expedition, in breaking convention gave authority to the leading gardener David Nelson, a supernumerary on HMAV Bounty, to supervise carpenters in refitting the […]

UNCLE BLIGH & UNCLE CHRISTIAN

Could William Bligh ‘the Liar’ or Fletcher Christian ‘the Lecher’ be my great-great-great-great uncle of my great-great-great-great grandfather’s third cousin thrice removed? If I knew that I could brag to unlettered folk and even be throned the wise uncle at Christmas parties. However, ethically thinking, should I be proud or ashamed if it means making […]

Breadfruit

Breadfruit and other Bounties Was Bligh a forerunner of Johnny [Appleseed] Chapman? ‘In a strange mixture of tropical and temperate crops, the legend to this John Prezioso painting explains that this Bligh-like figure consists of northern fruits like the apple and peach (his eyelid and upper lip), as well as equatorial tree products such as […]

THEIR BLUE SKIES WERE REALLY DARK GREY

An editor’s cut from Karl Lorbach’s first exposé on Bligh and Banks The Great Bounty Conspiracy — Bligh and his Breadfruit Chapter Five Of visionary things and gentleman’s schemes Between 26 October 1788 and 5 April 1789, it was mostly the wet season in Tahiti. This was when the Bounty was anchored at Matavai Bay […]

Season’s Greetings

SEASON’S GREETINGS

Bligh was Troubled by the French

Conspiracy on the Bounty — Bligh’s Convenient Mutiny: a factual book crammed with fresh supportive material. Bligh was greatly troubled by the French ahead: After the Bounty departed Tahiti and sailed towards Tonga, not only was Bligh confronted with the daily failure of his breadfruits, he was in dread of the French having already arrived […]

Bligh’s Convenient Mutiny

Bligh’s (made-to-order) Convenient Mutiny Question — “If you could have asked Fletcher Christian one question, what would that question be”? * Answer — “Considering that William Bligh made fame and fortune through adversity, and observing that his passive response to his arrest and the mutiny, was most uncharacteristic of Lieutenant Bligh, how much Mr Christian […]

DEMYSTIFYING THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY

DEMYSTIFYING the MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY  Following discussion outlining how breadfruit was but a subsidiary theme of Bligh’s Admiralty Orders: The “Bounty” myth or legend should not be forced upon generations of inquiring minds. There must be freedom to appreciate and acknowledge how science, as it habitually does, confirms, disproves, and or challenges historic accounts […]

High and Dry

What Really Bedeviled Bligh: Two counter-rotating propellers a symbol of non-scientific Bligh-verses-Christian, Christian-verses-Bligh, skewed forms of Hollywood history. Now one simple incontrovertible fact has left the cliché “Captain Bligh” in need of a new resume. All that’s been written that endeavors to account for Bligh’s violent outbursts, especially towards his officers, and particularly Fletcher Christian […]

Pacifist or Villain — Bligh’s Lucrative Mutiny!

Bligh was not a victim in the Bounty mutiny: In January 1989 as the bi-centenary of the Bounty mutiny gathered momentum, a ‘New Yorker’ cartoon showed Captain Bligh drifting away from the Bounty in a rowboat and shouting, “So, Mr. Christian! You propose to unceremoniously cast me adrift?” A lampoon of the famous painting by […]

Who Dares, Loses !

Bountiana in Decline: It is a sad fact that the story of Lieutenant Bligh’s historic launch voyage has been relegated to a trashy reality television show. On 10 July 2017 Australian SBS television re-aired Channel 4’s first episode of “Mutiny”, a five part UK series in which SAS — Who Dares Wins — instructor Anthony […]

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 […]

A total eclipse of Bligh’s launch voyage !

Yet another case of a disappearing journal: Following the mutiny on the Bounty, after Bligh returned safely to England, and before Bligh received his commission to the Providence, Governor Phillip in Sydney Cove was seething. He had discovered that eleven convicts and settlers had absconded in his fishing boat, a ship’s gig – an open […]

TWO OF BLIGH’S THREE ORIGINAL LOGBOOKS MISSING

Controversies Surrounding Bligh’s Bounty Logbooks Resurface: Consistent with findings in Conspiracy on the Bounty a commission to examine and conserve Bligh’s surviving logbooks failed to demonstrate that one of them was the original journal that Bligh had penned. The official position of the State Library of New South Wales (where the journal is held) “is […]

A ROYAL BOTANIST IN THE PHILIPPINES

‘A ROYAL BOTANIST IN THE PHILIPPINES’ and CAPTAIN BLIGH’S ROLE IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BREADFRUIT MYTHMAKING ! Almost two years before HMS Bounty set sail for Tahiti, Juan de Cuéllar, having been appointed Royal Botanist in the service of the Real Compañía de Filipinas, embarked from Cádiz on board the Águila Imperial heading for the Philippines. […]

A MASON ON A MISSION

Sailing master, and rookie Freemason, twenty-two years William Bligh, seen posing here in silk cravat and bob-wig civilian aplomb; his shirt pinned with a masonic square and compass badge (enlarged). * Bligh’s patron at The Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, is known to have been a Freemason. Likewise Bligh’s business friend and protégé, Duncan Campbell, […]

Seasons Greetings

THE ‘CONSPIRACY’ DELIVERS A COMPREHENSIVE VERDICT

THE VERDICT ‘Conspiracy on the Bounty’ tables a great deal more on Bligh, Christian, and the Bounty than was ever published, indeed was ever known before. Without heading into a labyrinth of critiques let us compare the verdicts of five recognized works: 1. Caroline Alexander’s exhaustive ‘The Bounty’ is a well-written 450-page book of what’s […]

Lieutenant Bligh escaped the fate of Admiral Byng !

Admiral John Byng’s Execution. Voltaire quipped, “In this country (England) it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time so to encourage the others.” Ever since 14 March 1757, the execution of Admiral Byng by a platoon of royal marines was etched firmly on the minds of commissioned officers. The execution took place […]

The French lost most of their breadfruits too !

The Recherche and Espérance: 1791–1794. An expedition to find two missing vessels commanded by Jean-François de La Pérouse (1741–1788). On 9 April 1793, under Commodore d’Entrecasteaux in the Recherche and the Espérance, the plant naturalist, Labillardière, sailed from Tonga for New Caledonia with a collection of two hundred A. altilis (seedless) breadfruit transplants. Despite Labillardière […]

A Sweep Under Bligh’s Dirty Rug

“Not to read it would be un-Australian”! For those interested in William Bligh, the man, whatever historic record hasn’t already been corrected about Bligh in Conspiracy on the Bounty is boldly laid bare in David Hunt’s popular witty book, Girt — the Unauthorized History of Australia. Doing away with euphemisms, Hunt has cited material or […]

Isn’t “She” Beautiful !

More often than not we refer to a ship, boat, yacht, as “She”. Arguments abound as to why this is so? One source suggests that a ship “was nearer and dearer to the sailor than anyone except his mother.” Therefore what better reason to call his ship “she”? Another source suggests “the use of ‘she’ […]

One Man Lived To Tell The Tale

The Bounty screenplay 1984. A seemingly unnecessary disclaimer during the end credits of this classic movie states that 35 years later, only John Adams and his new English-Tahitian mixed race family was found on Pitcairn Island by a passing British warship. The descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers continue to live on Pitcairn Island. The […]

Captain Bligh’s Silly Secret

Inside Bligh’s Cabin. Richard Hough, author of Captain Bligh and Mister Christian, argues that Christian’s love was requited by Bligh on a regular basis and that the mutiny was sweet man-love turned sour’! (ref: David Hunt, “Girt”)

An increasingly complex situation

Who Caused the Mutiny on the Bounty — Madge Darby 1964. A curious variation is Darby’s somewhat Freudian contention that Christian became demented on realizing that he loved Bligh rather than his Tahitian consort Isabella. Bligh, ten years older than Christian took the younger man ‘not only as his protégé but also as his lover’.

Passion, Power and Theatre on the Bounty

Mr Bligh’s Bad Language — Greg Dening 1994. Here Dening psychoanalyses Bligh as ‘a man bedeviled by nothing so much as his own vaguely homosexual jealousies’. Oscar Wilde once said, ‘everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.’ If Bligh’s bedevilment wasn’t so vague, and he and Christian allowed each […]

The Real Captain Bligh

Beyond seduction, suffering self-denial, or having a whale of a time living a bisexual lifestyle? Satirical Wiki artist shows Bligh giving the sign-of-the-horns small and index finger gesture, a familiar symbol of cuckoldry during Bligh’s time!

The Bounty — [1984 Film Version Five]

This fifth film dramatization of the 1789 mutiny aboard the HMS Bounty is based on Richard Hough’s novel Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian. The socially impotent Captain Bligh is as strict a disciplinarian as ever. Mr. Christian, formerly Bligh’s friend, becomes the leader of the mutiny virtually in spite of himself! Excellent performance with Mel […]

Mutiny on the Bounty — [1962 Film Version Four]

Colourful remake of MGM’s 1935 version three. ‘Tarita Teriipia and Brando shooting love scenes. Tarita later had two children with Brando, including a troubled daughter, Cheyenne, who committed suicide in 1995.’ (Hollywood-Elsewhere & Roy Frumkes). Notably in the 1962 production, which ran for a mighty 163 minutes, there’s just 4 minutes of scenes concerning breadfruit.

Gauguin’s Erotic Tahiti

Gauguin’s erotic Tahiti idyll exposed as a sham. Paul Gauguin, renowned for his paintings of exotic idylls and Polynesian beauties, was a sadist who battered his wife, exploited his friends and lied to the world about the erotic Eden he claimed to have discovered on the South Sea island of Tahiti. The most exhaustive study […]

Gauguin’s ideas influenced Bountiana

‘Paul Gauguin fled what he called “filthy Europe” in 1891 to what he hoped would be an unspoiled paradise, Tahiti. He painted 66 magnificent canvases during the first two years he spent there and kept notes from which he later wrote Noa Noa — a journal recording his thoughts and impressions of that time’ (Amazon).

Global Breadfruit

To help support the great work of the NTBG Breadfruit Institute, and breadfruit tree-planting projects, visit http://ntbg.org/breadfruit/donate/plantatree.php. For information on Global Breadfruit and how you can help, visit http://www.globalbreadfruit.com

“Bounty” Pop Culture

The “Bounty” industry has been servicing our imaginings since Gauguin sailed from Marseilles for Tahiti on the Océanien in April 1891 — http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/taschen-tiki-pop-sven-kirsten_n_5640183

Early “Bounty” Pop Culture

The “Bounty” industry has been servicing our imaginings since Gauguin sailed from Marseilles for Tahiti on the Océanien in April 1891  — http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/taschen-tiki-pop-sven-kirsten_n_5640183

Recommended soundtrack selection “The Bounty”

“These three pieces of musical majesty by Vangelis generate an awareness of the ominous force, yet serene tranquility of the sea. The vastness of the ocean surges against the coastline and reminds us that beneath the sparkling allure of the waves lies a terrible strength, ready to rise up with overwhelming power. My (rovingrepairbot) photos […]

How popular “History” can rapidly mutate into myth !

FACEBOOK FLASHBACK: HMS Bounty – Conspiracy on the Bounty [15 February 2015] Similar to HMS Bounty myths, many Titanic myths have been spread by films. “It is the tragic story that everybody knows the end to – the doomed Titanic sinks. Its final hours have become the stuff of myth – but how much have […]