1754-1817

English Naval officer

Thanks to the book Mutiny on the Bounty (1932) by Charles Nordhoff and James Hall, as well as many motion pictures on the subject, Captain William Bligh remains a symbol of arrogant power. The incident on the H.M.S. Bounty, when Bligh's crew mutinied and cast him and his supporters adrift on a boat in the Pacific, was not his last experience on the wrong end of an insurrection. Later, as governor of New South Wales, Australia, Bligh's authoritarian style helped to spark another revolt.

Bligh was born on September 9, 1754, in Plymouth. The son of a customs officer, he began his career at sea early, going away as a cabin boy at age seven. He joined the Royal Navy at 16, and by 22 Bligh had command of a ship, the Resolution, during part of the third voyage of Captain James Cook (1728-1779). By...