Complement of HMS Bounty in the ship's launch, while 25, a mixture of mutineers and detainees, remained on board under Fletcher Christian. Bligh led his loyalists to safety in the open boat, and ultimately back to England. The mutineers divided—most settled on Tahiti, where they were captured by in 1791 and returned to England for trial, while Christian and eight others evaded discovery on Pitcairn Island. The Admiralty rated "Bounty" as a cutter, the smallest category of warship—this meant that she was commanded not by a captain but by a lieutenant, with no other commissioned officers aboard, and without the usual detachment of Royal
Mutiny on the Bounty could use to enforce their authority. "Bounty" had been acquired to transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti (then rendered "Otaheite"), a Polynesian island in the south Pacific, to the British colonies in the West Indies. The expedition was promoted by the Royal Society and organised by its president Sir Joseph Banks, who shared the view of Caribbean plantation owners that breadfruit might grow well there and provide cheap food for the slaves. "Bounty" was refitted under Banks' supervision at Deptford Dockyard on the River Thames. The great cabin, normally the ship's captain's quarters, was converted into a greenhouse for over a