Captain Bligh & Mr. Christian: The Men and the Mutiny

The Bounty mutiny is perhaps the most fascinating and stirring sea adventure in world history, even more so than the TITANIC. Hough's book is an excellent reexamination of the story and of the complex relationship between William Bligh and Fletcher Christian. While I don't agree with Hough's conclusions as to what was really at the heart of the mutiny (I won't spoil it for you by revealing that here) the relationship was combustible and was at the heart of the mutiny.The Bounty crew were for the most part hand-picked and young. Christian was only in his early 20s, Bligh was in his early 30s and only a very few of the crew were in their late 30s or early 40s. Despite the popular image of the story, Bligh was actually pretty lenient with his crew when it came to punishment and he made it all the way to Tahiti losing only a single man. During his epic open boat voyage after the mutiny, he made it to Coupang having lost only one man en route, although many of the survivors died within weeks of their rescue. Bligh was a complainer, a nagger and had a viciously sharp tongue though which was more than the youthful Christian could bear.Far from the heroic image that Christian is given in the movies, Hough shows that Christian was impulsive and not much of a leader. While Bligh, sharp tongue and all, was able to save nearly all of the men who were kicked off the ship with him, Christian and his men met with disaster at almost every turn, primarily because Christian was a failure as a leader. The mutineers' disastrous attempt to settle on Pitcairn Island is perhaps the most gripping and fascinating part of the story.Hough's book is excellent and the Mel Gibson/Anthony Hopkins movie "The Bounty" was based on it and is by far the most authentic and best of the Bounty movies.

I agree with the previous reviews.I want to add that this book is the basis of the Gibson/Hopkins movie "The Bounty" Also, that the enjoyment and education I received in reading this book caused me to search for other Bounty related material.

Psychological insight combined with compelling storytelling make this account of the most famous mutiny in history thrilling reading 30 years after its original publication. The whole story is here in a brisk 300 pages that one regrets to have finished. Scrupulously fair to all concerned, more interested in exploring the causes of this tragedy than in assessing blame, with keen psychological discernment in limning the characters of Bligh (a truly Jeckyl and Hyde phenomenom) and Christian (beautiful, charming and weak), with a final last chapter hypothesis that is as stunning as it is plausible; but as the author admits, the reasons for this strange mutiny are ultimately unprovable. All the great mysteries, like the Kennedy assassination and the Bounty mutiny, are in the end unsolvable and that is what makes them so compelling. Thirty years on this vivid and acute examination of a certain unpleasantness in the south Pacific in 1789 must be judged a classic. I finished it with goosebumps on my flesh.