Mutiny on the Bounty Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain Lieutenant William Bligh and set him and 18 loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island. Bligh meanwhile completed a voyage of more than in the launch to reach safety, and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice. "Bounty" had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit plants
HMS Bounty Tahitian woman. Others of the "Bounty"s warrant officers and seamen were also said to have formed "connections" with native women. After five months in Tahiti, the "Bounty" set sail with her breadfruit cargo on 4 April 1789. Some west of Tahiti, near Tonga, mutiny broke out on 28 April 1789. Despite strong words and threats heard on both sides, the ship was taken bloodlessly and apparently without struggle by any of the loyalists except Bligh himself. Of the 42 men on board aside from Bligh and Christian, 22 joined Christian in mutiny, two were passive, and 18 remained loyal to