William McCoy (mutineer) William McCoy (mutineer) William McCoy (c.1763 – 20 April 1798) was a Scottish sailor and a mutineer on board HMS "Bounty". Following the mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, the "Bounty" was taken to Tahiti for a few days before being compelled to set sail. McCoy joined Christian and seven other mutineers. They took eleven Tahitian women and six men with them. After months at sea, the mutineers discovered the uninhabited Pitcairn Island and settled there in January 1790. McCoy had one consort, Teio, and fathered two children, Daniel and Catherine. After three years, a conflict broke out between the Tahitian
Peter Heywood with a bayonet at his breast and his hands tied, had addressed a remark to Heywood who had "laughed, turned round and walked away". Another midshipman, Thomas Hayward, claimed he had asked Heywood his intentions and been told by the latter that he would remain with the ship, from which Hayward assumed that his messmate had sided with the mutineers. After the departure of Bligh's launch, Christian turned "Bounty" eastward in search of a remote haven on which he and the mutineers could settle. He had in mind the island of Tubuai, 300 miles south of Tahiti, partly mapped by