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 interior of the ship to his liking. In believing he’d receive bonuses relative to the number of breadfruit plants he could deliver, Nelson foolishly proportioned his plant cabin for premiums, more than for success. Fast-forward to Tahiti where what followed was a monumental failure by Nelson to successfully nurture his breadfruit plants. One-by-one they died and one-by-one he replaced them. After three months of this in a desperate effort to salvage his mission he had the ship’s carpenters and cooper fashion large wooden tubs to house his plants, but it was all too late. What did Bligh do? Well to protect his boss’s reputation and his own rear end, he lied through his teeth and whitewashed the affair and then when Christian afforded him opportunity, he rolled right along with it triumphant.
THE HOWLER !
Matavai Bay, Tahiti, 5th of November 1788:
A rainy day that neither Bligh nor Nelson would ever forget. Bligh’s gardeners, David Nelson of 40 plus years and William Brown, 25 years, set out with their Maohi native helpers along an area affectionately called, the breadfruit walk, with intention to dig up breadfruit shoots from local Chief Peono’s family owned trees. Their party came with dozens of inquisitive Maohi onlookers. The breadfruit trees were bearing fruits at various stages of ripening, which Nelson thought was a good thing — it wasn’t. *
Along the walk Nelson says to Brown, “this one shall do”and with that Nelson attempts to plunge his spade to one side of his prize. Smiling, to avoid embarrassment, he tries again on the opposite side to no avail. Their audience find the gardener’s antics rather amusing and begin tochuckle and then laugh lawlessly.
Brown takes over and getting down on his hands and knees, scraping away the earth from a breadfruit shoot, uncovers nothing but a fibrous mass of large reddish roots running in every direction. Brown says, “hand me that forged hoe.” By now the Tahitians have stopped giggling and were warily pointed to where Brown should cut, which was a good foot away from the shoot on the outward side of the tree.
Later in the evening Nelson recorded in his journal ‘My first thought was I’d chosen a very bad place to start, then after several attempts, Mr Brown managed to drive his hoe though a layer of tough roots to either side of our first plant. I helped Mr. Brown carefully pull it free. The shoot was attached to an inch thick root having a few threads of roots hanging from one extreme. Mortifying for us was the obvious recognition that our pots were far too small and I was annoyed at being reminded of this by our Maohi hosts.’
It was now Nelson’s ‘aha-moment’ as he suddenly realizes his mentor, Banks, had never actually propagated seedless breadfruit; at the very least, he never waited long enough to inspect the outcome. Nelson’s utterly deficient instructions simply stated ‘you will endeavour to purchase of the natives as many small Bread Fruit Trees as you can possibly stow’. In other words, just dig them up and cram them in the earthenware pots provided. In this case, the mostly six-inch flowerpots that Nelson provided.
Back at the breadfruit walk, Nelson abruptly tells Brown “well go on then, cut the bloody root short enough to fit in the pot and make sure to add shells at the bottom so the soil doesn’t sour.“Meanwhile Nelson sends his helpers back to their camp to fetch some of the eight-inch flowerpots, though, even they were far too small.
Bligh soon learns of the mirth the Tahitians took at Nelson’s first outing and he orders seaman Smith to tell “Mr Nelson to see me at once,”which Nelson did, and below deck in the plant cabin those onboard could hear a muffled row going on between Nelson and Bligh. Nelson attempts to mollify Bligh, but the fact was, he had no defense other than to repeat that everything was under control and that he would succeed. Bligh tells Nelson “I damn well hope you are correct Mr Nelson so be gone and bloody-well succeed then.” Tragically, for the entire ship’s compliment, Nelson’s efforts were not successful and his journal has never been found.
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* For good reason much of my research puts Bligh’s breadfruit plants under the microscope. Nowadays, large orders of breadfruit trees are propagated employing In vitro (tissue culture) methodology. In Bligh’s time only the Maohis new how best to clone and wean their breadfruit plants, and sadly, Nelson was too bullheaded to take their advice. One of the causes behind the mutiny was the failure of the breadfruit plants stowed inside HMAV Bounty. The breadfruit tree cannot be multiplied quickly, and without some rudimentary knowledge of the plants physiology the procedure can be deceptively troublesome. Bligh was sent to collect seedless breadfruit plants from Tahiti, which meant his infertile trees would have to be propagated vegetatively. Depending upon which cultivar and where it had been growing, the breadfruit tree has an indistinct short dormant season. The timing for propagation is critical, particularly with seedless breadfruits as they are mostly made up of starch. This means that the roots and shoots are highly sensitive to the time they may be removed. Contrary to what Bligh and Nelson had thought, the opportune time to remove these shoots is during, not between, the plant’s dormant season; the period when carbohydrates stored in the roots peak at their highest level. If the timing is out and the parent root carbohydrates are low, the plant may appear well for a while then wither and die unexpectedly, which is exactly what happened to Nelson’s transplants. It is also important the enquirer understands that staging, or root pruning by installments, around these young suckers is a practiced prerequisite before any attempt is made to lift these transplants: root pruning each sucker several times over a period of months before taking it up will contribute to its survival when transplanted. The parent root of a sucker is gradually severed by notching about 30 centimeters from the shoot on the side supplying the tree, and after waiting some weeks, the same is repeated on other extremities of the main root until the shoot is totally independent. Alternatively both sides of the shoot may be notched over a period of weeks, and a trench dug around the plant over a period of months while the roots are intermittently severed. Either way it allows for the development of a compact root system to form about the base of the shoot before it’s removed. Whichever size is selected, these sensitive shoots stand a much higher chance of survival if they are removed during the trees dormancy period employing a well-proven mode of horticultural practice.
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Illustrations: Top – by John Hagan, from his Bounty collection.
Bottom left – breadfruit roots by Diane Ragone [Global Breadfruit, NTBG].
Bottom middle – Karl E. A. Lorbach [COTB]. **
Bottom right – breadfruit roots; DuSable Farms.
** The middle photo shows how the stem of a breadfruit shoot rises almost perpendicular to the horizontal parent root section. This is typical of adventitious shoots that often emerge from seedless breadfruit tree’s surface roots. During Bounty’s refit, going against Sir joseph Banks’ initial advise to use half barrel tubs, Nelson had 433 six-inch and 196 eight-inch earthenware flowerpots fitted in stands and before departure he added another 77: a total of 705 pitifully small, inadequate flowerpots. When severing the parent root, no less than 4 inches [100 mm] should remain each side of the shoot. 8½ inches [216 mm] is the total length of the larger root shown in the picture – the minimum recommended size. Further, even thin parent roots aren’t flexible enough to bend into an undersize pot. By cutting the root back the essential starch reserves necessary for the growth of the developing new root ball is severely diminished.
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