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
Mutiny on the Bounty on a British warship, , and arrived at Portsmouth on 19 June. There they were transferred to the guardship to await trial. The prisoners included the three detained loyalists—Coleman, McIntosh and Norman—to whom Bligh had promised justice, the blind fiddler Michael Byrne (or "Byrn"), Heywood, Morrison, and four active mutineers: Thomas Burkett, John Millward, Thomas Ellison and William Muspratt. Bligh, who had been given command of HMS "Providence" for a second breadfruit expedition, had left England in August 1791, and thus would be absent from the pending court martial proceedings. The court martial opened on 12 September 1792 on in