Mutiny on the Bounty for himself, his clerk Samuel, and his servant John Smith, and sailed on 16 October 1789. Four of the remainder—the master's mate Elphinstone, the quartermaster Peter Linkletter, the butcher Robert Lamb and the assistant surgeon Thomas Ledward—all died either in Batavia or on their journeys home. After the departure of Bligh's launch, Christian divided the personal effects of the departed loyalists among the remaining crew and threw the breadfruit plants into the sea. He recognised that Bligh could conceivably survive to report the mutiny, and that anyway the non-return of "Bounty" would occasion a search mission, with Tahiti as its
Mutiny on the Bounty however Bligh's reputation as the archetypal bad commander remains: the "Baltimore Sun"'s reviewer of Alexander's book wrote "poetry routed science and it has held the field ever since". In addition to many books and articles about the mutiny, in the 20th century five feature films were produced. The first was a 1916 silent Australian film, subsequently lost. The second, also from Australia, entitled "In the Wake of the Bounty" (1933), and was the screen debut of Errol Flynn in the role of Christian. The impact of this film was overshadowed by that of the MGM version, "Mutiny on the Bounty"