The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

Rating:
Summary: "Mr. Christian, come here!"
Review: Most people's thoughts about the Bounty mutiny are inevitably based upon the Charles Laughton - Clark Gable movie. There we saw a tyrannical Capt. Bligh and an almost saintly Fletcher Christian. It seems that literature has painted Christian as the "hero' of sorts, with Bligh playing the "evil captain" part. This book attempts an even-handed explanation of what happened on the Bounty. Due to many contradictions in testimony, even from eyewitnesses, this was difficult, but the author has handled the situation quite well. The book reads, at times, like a novel, which makes page-turning a pleasure. All readers will certainly find something new about this famous mutiny within the pages of this book, and I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe more accurate, but less entertaining
Review: The factual differences between this and earlier versions were not apparent to me, and previous renditions are more entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Lifting the Lid on Bligh
Review: Alexander's work is astounding. A result of enormous research and careful study.

No stone is left unturned in this account of the Bounty mutineers and how Bligh's precarious character was used to secure their pardons. Debunks many of the popular myths of Bligh as a draconian slave-driver and re-examines the complicity of the mutineers.

A must for any student of the subject and a jolly good read to boot.

Rating:
Summary: An extremely thorough review of the Bounty Mutiny
Review: I gave this book four stars only because it was too thorough, and thus really long for an audio book. Beside that, it was a very good read. The facets of the book are very interesting, in that it touches on multiple aspects that could be books on their own. For example, the treatment of the mutiny court-martial could make a good "Law and Order" episode or movie. The open boat trip makes for a study in survival.
Although some reviewers criticized the focus on Thomas Heywood, I find it interesting to understand the power to revise history. Indeed, the concept of "spin" is an old one. It is amazing how a convicted mutineer could get off scott-free with the right friends and the right spin. It's almost the equivalent of pardoning Squeaky Fromme because she was young and stupid.


Rating:
Summary: Entertaining history
Review: A man commits a crime. When the community finds out, he is condemned. Then, the man and his family do a little spin control, and suddenly, he turns out to be a hero (or at least a victim) to a large segment of the population and the victim becomes the villain. We see it in the news all the time today, but it is hardly a new phenomenon; as shown in The Bounty, the criminal-as-wronged-individual is a centuries-old idea.

The Bounty is part history, part true crime story. Set in the late 18th century world of maritime trade and warfare, The Bounty tells the story of the most famous mutiny in history. As in a true crime story, the actual act takes a mere few pages, but it is the central act in the tale. The events leading up to the mutiny and the actions taken afterward by both sides fill up the rest of the book.

The myth of the Mutiny of the Bounty has Captain William Bligh as the villain and the mutinous Fletcher Christian as the hero (how could a man named Christian be anything less than heroic?). Bligh's name has become synonymous with tyrannical behavior, yet The Bounty shows that there was nothing exceptional about his behavior: in an era when ships' captains were tyrants, Bligh was no saint, but he may have actually been a little better than average. In this book, the sympathies are definitely with Bligh, especially after he and his loyalists are abandoned on a small craft and must undergo a harrowing trip over 3000 miles of mostly open water. That Bligh was pivotal in almost everyone surviving this trip makes Bligh the true hero in this book. Fletcher Christian, on the other hand, often comes off as an irrational or just an ingrate.

Well-documented, The Bounty is both entertaining and educational. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was an epilogue dealing with the various movies and books that have been about this event. Nonetheless, this is a very good book and a worthwhile read for those interested in this subject.


Rating:
Summary: Good but occasionally bogged down
Review: Caroline Alexander has written a very compelling and readable account of the Bounty mutiny, complete with an account of the heroic open water navigation feat of Capt. Bligh, and a detailed account of the court-martial trials of the surviving mutineers who were captured and tried in England. Of course little can be written about the aftermath of the mutiny among the Pitcairn survivors, since sources of information do not really exist, and likewise any author would have a hard time getting into the heads of Fletcher Christian and his shipmates to study exactly what caused the mutiny. I believe the author did as well, on those subjects, as anyone could ever hope even though the reader ultimately wants a little more information.

What I found curious in this book was the excessive number of pages devoted to Peter Heywood, his trial, and in particular the endless stream of letters between Heywood and his somewhat wacky sister leading up to his trial. I think the author found Heywood particularly fascinating since he was a gentleman and an officer, unlike many who were brought back to Europe. So much attention had been devoted to Heywood, and so little attention had been given to some of the other mutineers, that when the trial commenced I lost track of the other defendants and start confusing them.

Captain Bligh is a complex character, and I thought Alexander did a good job portraying Bligh's inherent courage, his skills as a captain, his sense of duty, his attention to detail and yet his stubborn inflexibility. It was this last characteristic which may have pushed Christian and some of the others over the top after a lazy sojourn in Tahiti. The author also points out that due to the size of the Bounty, and the space needed for transporting the precious breadfruit plants (which were to be used for feeding slaves in the colonies by the way), Bligh did not have marines on board who would assist him in promoting discipline and keeping order.

All in all this was a very good book, and required reading for anyone wanting to know more about the Bounty mutiny. Had the author presented a little more information about the other mutineers, and devoted a little less space to Peter Heywood and his family, I would give it 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Unputdownable.
Review: Caroline Alexander's history of the Bounty is a magnificent synthesis of deft narrative and thorough, patient scholarship.

The chapters describing the court-martial kept me up until the wee hours. Alexander's description of the captured mutineers' ordeal, sourced from, and coloured by, a mind-bogglingly vast pile of primary sources, is a gripping account of what it would be like to have your life depend on the opinions of 12 British naval officers at the end of the 18th century. That the mutineers' hopes and fears, as they passed daily beneath the yardarms from which three of them would eventually be hanged, mattered so much to me that I lost sleep over them is a testament to the author's art.

Anyone offering a postmodernist rant against this type of history should be smacked on the side of the head with Alexander's 450+ page book.

Alexander uncovers the elaborate webs of allegiance and interest that underscored the Bounty's mission, her crew, their mutiny, the court-martial, and the various smear campaigns that followed. This last in particular amazed me, I had no idea that so many of the Bounty's crew had published their own accounts of the mutiny.

The author also reveals the important roles various women played in events. Apart from the "seductions of Tahiti," as Alexander puts it, I had never known that women were such an integral part of the Bounty story. In her final chapter, Alexander mentions that there were frequently women aboard British men-of-war, though they weren't usually listed in the ships' books. O'Brian knew this and wrote women onto ships in various tomes of his Aubrey-Maturin series, though the film "Master and Commander" leaves them out of the picture.

Alexander gives particular attention to Peter Heywood, a midshipman in his teens when the mutiny happened, and who stayed with Christian aboard the ship. He was captured, tried, found guilty, sentenced to hang, pardoned by the king, and went on to live a life of penitence. His story made me ponder how quickly people had to grow up back then - the consequence of Heywood's teenaged passivity was a death sentence from 12 battle-scarred British Naval officers.

Although the book is sympathetic to Bligh, it is not at Christian's expense nor uncritical of the captain abandoned in his launch. My allegiance shifted back and forth as Alexander presented new information about each man, as well as introducing their families, friends, and foes.

History, character study, sea yarn, this is an unputdownable book.