Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare

Rating:
Summary: Long Overdue Balance to Much Maligned Bligh
Review: Apologies to Charles Laughton, Hollywood's swaggering, autocratic 18th Century British naval officer who loses HMS Bounty to Marlon Brando's Mr. Christian. Author John Toohey's book "Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare" lends long overdue balance to the extremely capable if troubled William Bligh.

Combining history with literary license, Toohey weaves a gripping account of survival and intrigue. The book's early focus is on Bligh's experiences as ship's Master and principal cartographer during James Cook's third exploration of the Pacific. When Cook is killed in the Sandwich Islands Bligh feels blame. This guilt is compounded by disgust when, upon returning to England, Bligh finds he has been deprived credit for his work on the expedition's soon famous maps of the Pacific. These "failures" drive Bligh to seek an opportunity to reclaim just honor and recognition.

It comes in 1787 when Bligh is sent on a mission of moderate importance. Like all he does, Bligh is compelled to conduct it as though the world were watching (as they had Cook ten years earlier). There is a mutiny. Bligh and eighteen men are set adrift in a 23 foot launch with a meager ration of food, water, instruments but no charts. His leadership and navigation skills are challenged by storms, starvation, exposure, and (again) growing dissention yet Bligh negotiates nearly 4,200 miles of ocean to safety in Timor -- with the loss of one man and all the while obsessively (if not dutifully) making notations and drawings of landforms along the way. It is an incomparable achievement yet, upon returning to England questions of the mutiny share headlines with the tale of brilliant navigation and survival.

Though Bligh's wife's words, Toohey sums up the man best: "He has always given the impression he has been victimized, yet he seems wilfully prepared to destroy his career for an insignificant principle... His troubles consume him... He is so determined to abide by the letter of the law he can never understand how he aggravates people who know that certain situations require more imagination than he is prepared to put in. They admire him, respect him, call him a hero -- but they never warm to him... More than any man she has ever met he feels utterly alone."

Toohey description of Bligh and his interrelationship with his "boat mates," -- particularly stubborn William Purcell and the conspiring John Fryer -- lend intrigue. This story evokes qualities from "Bridge On the River Kwai" and "Tweleve Angry Men". It's a good read and a balanced account that helps the reader climb into a 23 foot boat in the South Pacific and into the head of Britain's most maligned sea captain.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable read
Review: It's rare that I give 5 stars for a book review but this, in my opinion, has earned it. I'm a self-confessed Bounty-phile, sucking up all the literature that she has to offer and this was no exception.

William Bligh must go down as one of the most maligned persons in history. This from a man who acted as second in command to Cook in his early 20's, became governor of Australia and, as this book explains, sailed over 4000 miles from memory in a 23 foot boat losing not a single man during the voyage.

Toohey starts us with the happenings at Keakekua Bay, Hawaii the day Cook was murdered. This, according to Toohey, stayed with Bligh all his years and coloured his actions thereafter. Sections of the book contain dialogue between the men in the boat; this has to be guessed at obviously but Toohey makes a decent stab at it.

This wil not take you long to read but will provide some valuable information on an oft-neglected area of the whole Bounty lore.

Rating:
Summary: Did not compare well to fictionalized 'Men Against the Sea'
Review: While this book was nicely written and a quick read, I did not particularly enjoy it. While the story of Bligh and his men and their journey across the South Pacific is truly one of the most amazing stories of sea survival ever to occur, this book tooled thru so much of the journey so quickly that I never got the sense of its scope or its heroic nature. I also agree with comments of other reviewers that it did not convey Bligh's great leadership abilities well. In that regard the fcitionalized 'Men Against the Sea' (Nordhoff and Hall) did a much better job. If anything, this telling made me more understanding of the resentment of the men in the boat (as opposed to those who stayed behind after the mutiny) against Bligh, while the novel made it clear that the same qualites of control and rigor which resulted in the mutiny are also the major reasons that Bligh and his men survived the journey. I would heartily recommend the entire MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY trilogy for those who are interested in the Bounty story over this somewhat factual account.