Mutiny on the Bounty was then forced below at bayonet-point; according to Fryer, Christian told him: "I have been in hell for weeks past. Captain Bligh has brought this on himself." Christian originally thought to cast Bligh adrift in "Bounty"'s small jolly boat, together with his clerk John Samuel and the loyalist midshipmen Hayward and Hallett. This boat proved unseaworthy, so Christian ordered the launching of a larger ship's boat, with a capacity of around ten. However, Christian and his allies had overestimated the extent of the mutiny—at least half on board were determined to leave with Bligh. Thus the ship's largest boat, a
Mutiny on the Bounty of the "Britannia", a vessel owned by his wife's uncle Duncan Campbell. Bligh assumed the prestigious "Bounty" appointment on 16 August 1787, at a considerable financial cost; his lieutenant's pay of four shillings a day (£70 a year) contrasted with the £500 a year he had earned as captain of "Britannia". Because of the limited number of warrant officers allowed on "Bounty", Bligh was also required to act as the ship's purser. His sailing orders stated that he was to enter the Pacific via Cape Horn around South America and then, after collecting the breadfruit plants, sail westward through the