HMS Bounty HMS Bounty HMS "Bounty, also known as HM Armed Vessel "Bounty, was a small merchant vessel that the Royal Navy purchased for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to the Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to British possessions in the West Indies. That mission was never completed due to a mutiny led by acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian. This incident is now popularly known as the mutiny on the "Bounty". The mutineers later burned "Bounty" while she was moored at Pitcairn Island. An American adventurer rediscovered the remains of the
Mutiny on the Bounty Endeavour Strait and across the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans to the West Indies islands in the Caribbean. "Bounty" would thus complete a circumnavigation of the Earth in the Southern Hemisphere. "Bounty"'s complement was 46 men, comprising 44 Royal Navy seamen (including Bligh) and two civilian botanists. Directly beneath Bligh were his warrant officers, appointed by the Navy Board and headed by the sailing master John Fryer. The other warrant officers were the boatswain, the surgeon, the carpenter, and the gunner. To the two master's mates and two midshipmen were added several honorary midshipmen—so-called "young gentlemen" who were aspirant naval