Mutiny on the Bounty | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

In 1932, Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall became bestselling authors with the publication of Mutiny on the Bounty, based upon the true story of mutiny on board an English naval vessel in the late eighteenth century. They followed their success with sequels, Men Against the Sea (1934) and Pitcairn's Island (1938). The books tell of exciting nautical adventures, idyllic life on Pacific islands, romantic affairs between sailors and native girls, and power struggles in which good ultimately triumphs over evil. These were the topics, exotic fantasies of long ago and far away, that offered Americans an emotional escape from the throes of economic depression during the 1930s.

In 1933, In the Wake of the Bounty, the story of the mutiny, was filmed in a documentary starring Errol Flynn. Some of the film was shot on location on Pitcairn's Island where, in 1788, the Bounty mutineers found a haven from Captain Bligh and the court martial and death that would have met them had they returned to England. This documentary film was followed, in 1935, with the hit Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) film, Mutiny on the Bounty, starring the popular actor Clark Gable. It received Academy Award nominations for its score, film editing, screenplay, director, and three of its actors, and won the award for best picture of 1935.

The film tells of the H.M.S. Bounty which, in 1787, left England to obtain breadfruit plants from Tahiti and transport them to the West Indies, where they could be established as a plantation food source for slaves. Clark Gable played Fletcher Christian, the hero who leads a mutiny against the tyrannical Captain Bligh, portrayed by Charles Laughton. In the beginning of the film, Captain Bligh immediately reveals his sadistic nature. Before the ship sets sail, he has a dead man flogged to show his crew that he will carry out punishment to the letter. The journey includes many similar incidents in which Bligh's harsh discipline establishes his tyranny and kindles the inclination for rebellion by the crew.

When the ship arrives at Tahiti, the crew enjoys a six-month reprieve from Bligh's punishments while the men collect breadfruit plants. During this time they enjoy the island paradise and the company of the native girls. When the project is finished, the crew leaves reluctantly, and five of them try to desert ship to return to the island, but they are caught and flogged. Captain Bligh orders all hands on deck to observe the flogging, even though one crewmember, the elderly ship's doctor, is too ill to move. Bligh demands that he come to the deck, and the effort kills the old doctor. As Christian watches the doctor die and the flogging begin, he rallies the crew to mutiny. Christian orders the men to spare Bligh's life. Bligh and some crewmembers who are still loyal to him travel in a lifeboat for 49 days until they reach the Dutch East Indies. Meanwhile, the mutineers return to their paradise where they marry their Tahitian lovers.

A year later, Bligh, on board a new ship, the Pandora, returns to arrest the mutineers and bring them to justice in the English court. But Christian and some others escape on the Bounty to Pitcairn's Island, where they are safe from Bligh forever. Bligh's new ship is wrecked on the reefs surrounding the island, and though he returns to England, testimony against him by one loyal member of the crew who was wrongly charged with mutiny brings condemnation upon Bligh by his peers. This Hollywood ending in which Bligh's inhumanity is noted and Christian's gentleness and bravery earn him an island paradise made the movie a great success at a time when Americans clung to hope for escape from their own dilemmas during the financial crises of the Great Depression.

In 1962, Nordhoff's and Hall's novels were republished and the movie was remade, this time starring Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian. Another generation of Americans learned the story of the Bounty. Though the film was praised for its score and South Seas cinematography, it did not succeed as well as the classic Gable film. It fell short of the unanimous popularity enjoyed by its predecessor, perhaps because of an uneven performance by Brando, or possibly as a result of the country's preference for contemporary American issues over British naval history. The romances between the sailors and the Tahitian women were exotic and appealing during the 1930s, but American viewers of the 1960s were not entranced. Though the film was not a box office or critical hit, it was nominated for a share of Academy Awards (seven, though it did not win any), and it did rekindle an interest in Captain Bligh and the H.M.S. Bounty.

The replica from the 1962 movie, a full-rigged sailing ship, was donated in 1993 by its owner, Ted Turner, to Tall Ship Bounty, a nonprofit educational foundation. Called the H. M. S. Bounty, its crew trains teen cadets and teaches maritime history to elementary school students. It sails between Canada and the Caribbean, docking for public tours and participating in tall-ships festivals. This activity has kept the history of the Bounty alive through the end of the century. In addition to the interest generated by Tall Ship Bounty, the motion pictures, and the popular novels, there have been more than 2,000 articles, books, and documentary films about the Bounty's mutiny, making it perhaps the best known of maritime adventures.

Collett, Bill. The Last Mutiny: The Further Adventures of Captain Bligh. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 1995.

Denig, Greg. Mr. Bligh's Bad Language: Passion, Power, and Theatre on the Bounty. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Nordhoff, Charles, and James Norman Hall. The Bounty Trilogy: Comprising the Three Volumes, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, & Pitcairn's Island. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1962.

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