22. Bligh was sent a second time to Tahiti to obtain breadfruit
Lieutenant William Bligh was court-martialed for the loss of His Majesty’s Armed Vessel Bounty, with other survivors of the launch called to give testimony. He was “most-honorably acquitted”, and was widely celebrated in Great Britain when his account of the mutiny and Fletcher Christian’s treachery was made public. Peter Heywood, the scion of a wealthy Manx family (as was Christian) was condemned for his role in the mutiny almost as roundly as Christian. Bligh was presented to King George III by Sir Joseph Banks and Lord Hood before being commissioned to return to Tahiti on a second breadfruit mission. The two vessels of the expedition were accompanied by a detachment of Royal Marines.
Bligh departed on the second breadfruit mission in 1791 as a national hero, with a reputation of being one of Britain’s greatest navigators and explorers, a worthy successor to Captain Cook. When he returned his reputation was in tatters; he was regarded as a sadistic tyrant and brute. During his absence, the powerful Christian and Heywood families had published accounts of the voyage of the Bounty which presented Bligh in that light, creating the myth of the heroic and noble Fletcher Christian’s stand against mindless cruelty and Captain Bligh’s love of cruel punishments.