The Mutiny on the Bounty was caused by breadfruit trees: In 1787, William Bligh was ordered to load a number of these trees on Tahiti and to ship them to the Caribbean; there they would serve as a cheap food for the slaves working on plantations. The main plantations at the time were those of sugarcane. This was the first attempt a government made to grow an economically important plant at a different location. The attempt failed, because the seamen did not understand why the drinking water supply was used to water the plants; they threw the plants overboard.