Then
give three cheers, and one cheer more for the hardy Captain of...the Bounty.
So
what do you get when two American WWI aviators collaborate to create a story
about a famous nautical occurrence in the 18th century? You get something akin to Birth of a Nation...history written with
lightning...or, in other words...horse hockey...
The
Mutiny on the Bounty is a series of
three books, the first being published in 1932, and followed by two others
charting the lives of the mutineers afterwards.
The books are written in a most authoritative style, a mockumentary so
to speak, demonizing Bligh and canonizing Christian. Don't get me wrong, the books are wonderful,
and they capture the intense flavor of the period, but unfortunately they are
the seed that provided the miscarriage of the history surrounding the Bounty affair, as it appears in popular
culture...print, film and stage.
Captain
William Bligh was an experienced seaman, with a resume that stretched from
cabin boy to command. He knew what he
was doing and he was familiar with the ocean he sailed, having been in the
Pacific before with Captain James Cook.
Was Bligh a tyrant? Was he a
cruel Captain, abusing his position and imposing excessive amounts of
punishments upon the Bounty's crew?
Contrary to our story's narrative and characterization, probably
not. He was likely no better or no
worse in that department than any other late 18th century British ship's
Captain. So why did the crew
mutiny? Why did Fletcher Christian lead
such a horrific act of nautical treachery against Bligh who was his longtime
friend? Perhaps the answer lies in the
hardship of the voyage. Maybe it was the
five-month layover the ship's crew had in Tahiti. Maybe the mutineers were abolitionists and
had no desire to deliver breadfruit plants to Caribbean plantations as a renewable
food source for slaves. The voyage to
the South Pacific was tedious, taking a full month just to round the southern
tip of Africa. When they all arrived in
Tahiti, the breadfruit trees were not mature enough for transport, so they had
to wait (Incidentally, the whole voyage was based on getting these trees onto
British West Indian soil to feed British Black slaves...so it might have very
well been cursed by karma from the start).
This, along with months of sun, beautiful women, sandy beaches, tropical
fruits and eats under their belts, it's possible the crew had absolutely no
desire to return to merry, dreary old England.
Whatever
the reason...It happened...the crew mutinied, stole His Majesty's ship and
created their very own South Pacific odyssey.
They stuck Bligh and those loyal to him in a small launch, gave them
supplies and some navigational instruments, and shoved them off into the
unknown. With hook, crook, luck and an
ego that was backed up by expertise, Bligh succeeded in sailing his little boat
over 3500 miles in 47 days. He had
reached a small European settlement on Timor, with only one casualty. Remarkable.
Charles Laughton did this man no justice.
After
the publication of the series, there films and stage productions took the books
as gospel, in direct contrast to what had come before, mainly Verne’s version, The Mutineers of the Bounty, which
focused on Bligh's navigational skills, and a 1916 silent film that was more
accurate in its portrayal of Bligh, namely, refraining from showing him as a
irascible monster. History has never
really been quite the same since...unless of course you actually read the real
history...and gather not your facts from fantasy...
Finding
a first edition of Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall's three books in the Mutiny on the Bounty series can be a
fairly expensive prospect. A nice copy
of the first book can set you back a couple of hundred bucks. A not so nice copy of the books might be had
for less depending on condition and timing.
Ebay, Amazon, Abebooks or Alibris are your best bets. The second and third novels were serialized
in the Saturday Evening Post before
they were printed up as books. Men Against the Sea made its début in
November and December of 1933, and Pitcairn's
Island in September, October and November of 1934. The magazines would be the true first
editions should you wish to seek them out.
You
could also read them here...if you were so bold...