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
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