Mutiny on the Bounty Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain Lieutenant William Bligh and set him and 18 loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island. Bligh meanwhile completed a voyage of more than in the launch to reach safety, and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice. "Bounty" had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit plants
HMS Bounty journal kept by one of Christian's followers, the Tahitians were actually kidnapped when Christian set sail without warning them, the purpose of this being to acquire the women. The mutineers passed through the Fiji and Cook Islands, but feared that they would be found there. Continuing their quest for a safe haven, on 15 January 1790 they rediscovered Pitcairn Island, which had been misplaced on the Royal Navy's charts. After the decision was made to settle on Pitcairn, livestock and other provisions were removed from the "Bounty". To prevent the ship's detection, and anyone's possible escape, the ship was burned