6. William Bligh should be remembered for his seamanship
When William Bligh returned to England following his loss of His Majesty’s Armed Vessel (HMAV) Bounty it was to a hero’s welcome. The mutineers were reviled in England, Bligh was exonerated of wrongdoing in a court martial and again dispatched to Tahiti to obtain breadfruit trees, the original mission of Bounty, and convey them to the sugar plantations in Jamaica. Upon his return from the second, successful voyage he found that it was then he who was reviled; a successful smear campaign by the wealthy families of Fletcher Christian and Peter Heywood had painted Bligh as an insufferable tyrant and megalomaniac. Later in his career, during the Rum Rebellion in Australia, Bligh was again the subject of a mutiny, though again he was not at fault. For the rest of history, Bligh has been portrayed as the epitome of cruelty and tyranny.
It is an unfair portrayal. The log of the Bounty reveals that Bligh punished sparingly and was solicitous of his crew’s welfare and health. Nothing proves his true character more than the successful voyage of the launch following Bligh’s ejection from Bounty. After one of his party was killed by the natives of Tofua, Bligh piloted the 23-foot launch, severely overcrowded with 18 men aboard, with minimal provisions (roughly one week’s supplies on half rations) on a 3,618 nautical mile voyage (over 4,000 statute miles) in 47 days without the loss of a man. He did so without charts or an accurate timekeeper, creating new charts of the islands and coasts they passed with astonishing accuracy. After reaching Timor several of the party succumbed to the unhealthy climate of the region and Bligh himself was sickened, though he recovered. He should be remembered for achieving one of the greatest feats in the history of the sea, rather than being one of its greatest villains.