Complement of HMS Bounty Heywood, who were both 15 when they left England. Complement of HMS Bounty The complement of , the Royal Navy ship on which a historic mutiny occurred in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789, comprised 46 men on its departure from England in December 1787 and 44 at the time of the mutiny, including her commander Lieutenant William Bligh. All but two of those aboard were Royal Navy personnel; the exceptions were two civilian botanists engaged to supervise the breadfruit plants "Bounty" was tasked to take from Tahiti to the West Indies. Of the 44 aboard at the time
Men Against the Sea open boat by the mutineers of the "Bounty". The story is told from the perspective of Thomas Ledward, the "Bounty's" acting surgeon, who went into the ship's launch with Bligh. It begins after the main events described in the novel and then moves into a flashback, finishing at the starting point. Men Against the Sea Men Against the Sea is the second installment in the trilogy by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall about the mutiny aboard HMS "Bounty". It is preceded by "Mutiny on the "Bounty"" and followed by "Pitcairn's Island". The novel first appeared in serial form in