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 likely falsehood of the proposition. In this context, inordinate “blankness” becomes a revealing indicator, a gaping alarm you might say. Vice-Admiral William Bligh certainly lied by omission in his early correspondence and journals, as did Sir Joseph Banks, and other players evading questions and answers about the Bounty debacle.
Prior to the release of Conspiracy on the Bounty — Bligh’s Convenient Mutiny in 2012, storytellers of conventional Bountiana thrived in an excessively romantic and speculative atmosphere. Thankfully this trend has shifted more in favor of blunt accuracy.
Introducing artist and author, John Hagan, and his unfiltered blend of fact and fiction in his novel ABLINDEYE: Bounty Mutiny – What really happened 2020. *
This is not a formal book review, nor was it solicited, so the storyline of ABLINDEYE can be comfortably explored (without giving too much away). Behind the central plot is a commercial enterprise struck between plutocrat Sir Joseph Banks, and overseer of Thames Prison Hulks, Duncan Campbell, who hatched a plan to supply the Navy Board with reduced price rum should large quantities of breadfruit plants be imported into Campbell and his cronies’ sugar plantations in Jamaica. The pair foolishly thought rapid grown breadfruit plants would give English planters an edge over French and Dutch rivals with the cost of feeding their plantation slaves. Enlisting the support of King George it was proposed that the Admiralty would finance a [supposedly] scientific expeditionary voyage, which it did, conditional upon the plants being obtained from Tahiti — to re-establish British presence ** — and that the commander of the voyage, Lieutenant William Bligh, would survey a navigable passage through Torres Strait on his return voyage to Jamaica. To all intents this was a delusional shortsighted idea as if borne out of consuming too much strong liquor, definitely a trifecta of dunce planning that all went belly-up.
The year is 1792 in London, set in gritty urban landscapes, sordid prison ship hulks, and opulent private lodgings of Banks in downtown Soho. Author John Hagan builds an extraordinary case for lawyer advocate, Aaron Graham, acting for accused HMAV Bounty mutineer, Peter Heywood, the trouble-plagued son of a wealthy Isle of Man family. ABLINDEYE is something of a detective thriller with elements of suspense, danger, and brutal violence, where witnesses play a crucial role in potentially exonerating the sentence of the accused mutineer. Investigator, Graham, endeavors to uncover the truth behind the mutiny, while facing obstacles and threats to prevent witnesses from coming forward with crucial evidence: a cat-and-mouse game between him and those trying to hide an ugly fact. Hagan explores the darker aspects of human nature, and ultimately, exposes Bligh for having engineered his own overthrow, including how he did it and precisely why he did it. Eloquently told featuring central characters, Admiral – (Earl) Richard Howe, Aaron Graham – Advocate, Captain Sir Thomas Pasley R.N., Duncan Campbell, Sir Joseph Banks R.S., Nessie Heywood (niece of Peter Heywood), plus a number of witnesses and the prisoners themselves.
Hagan’s evidence unfolds pre-trial, then it’s argued in a Tribunal come Court Martial aboard HMS Duke in Portsmouth Harbor. There are themes of corruption, betrayal, and moral dilemmas faced by the advocate in his tenacious pursuit of justice. The unassailable breadfruit evidence, so meticulously detailed in Conspiracy on the Bounty showed exactly what it was that bedeviled Bligh. Hagan builds his plot to surprise his readers with not only that very evidence included in defense of Heywood, also to the condemnation of Bligh. The ripple effect of the evidence, penetrated the lives of every accused mutineer; it also spun Banks and Campbell into a desperate panic. Most readers would already know that four accused mutineers were acquitted; Peter Heywood joined two others who were pardoned after having received a King’s mercy in the nick of time, while three other so-called mutineers were cruelly hanged.
Here is a spoiler from the Tribunal:
“Are you saying Bligh and Christian were mollys, sodomites, devotees of the windward passage?” Lord Spencer asked coarsely. To which Heywood’s advocate replies, “No, I know nothing of any physical relationship my Lord. Yet no doubt you are familiar with the term ‘paederastia’. As you know it refers to the love of a man for a beardless boy. It can include both carnal and educational elements for the man is expected to set the boy an example in heroism and correct behavior until he becomes an adult. It does not preclude relationships with women nor does it always end with physical consummation. I think in a way it typifies the type of relationship Bligh imagined he had with Christian.” Graham picked up a page and held it in his hand. “Where is my proof for this you may ask? Well gentlemen the proof positively jumps from the pages of Bligh’s own narrative, from his log and from his affidavits. More jumps from the testimony of crew members, and from Sir Joseph’s own submissions …”.
A final spoiler from Chapter 67, one that wraps up the Advocate’s case: “William Bligh was the architect of his mutiny, of that I have no doubt”. ***
ABLINDEYE aptly describes ugly class distinctions and endemic corruption of the times. The reader is taken into reeking Thames Prison Hulks that Bligh’s uncle Campbell unashamedly profited from. **** It clenches the argument that the mutiny was more a crime of passion projected by fear of complete failure Bligh had succumbed to: the venality of Bligh unwrapped for all to see. If you don’t mind bouncing over some odd spelling and grammatical errors — possibly incurred during transfer to a Kindle electronic edition — it is a lengthy, complex, ripping yarn, one I recommend reading.
Karl E. A. Lorbach
* ABLINDEYE: in 18th-century slang, a person with one eye was a seven-sided animal: front-side, back-side, right-side, left-side, out-side, in-side, and blind-side.
** Fine seedless breadfruit was already dolloped on almost every inhabited island in the tropical Pacific as well as in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies.
*** See also: https://www.bountyconspiracy.com/lieutenant-bligh-got-away-with-what-admiral-byng-did-not/
**** “One problem for biographers of Bligh is that it is difficult to apportion prestige to Bligh, and to Bligh’s family, if part of that family is a loathed overseer of hated prison hulks. Such problems were avoided by Bligh biographers working in the 1930s, and have not been solved since”: cited from The Blackheath Connection; “From the Writing Desk”, Dan Byrnes].
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