The Bounty

by Richard Hough

The story of the mutiny on HMS Bounty in 1789 has become a legend. As such, many accounts of this famous incident have portrayed Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian in black and white terms: the former as a tyrant, the latter fully justified in leading the mutiny against his captain. There is however, ample evidence of Bligh's courage an d compassion and of Christian's strange behaviour and instability. This then, is the basis on which this extraordinary story is told. The two protagonists are not simply as hero and villain, but as imperfect people: Christian a troubled and guilty man, but soft underneath; Bligh an admired and courageous leader, yet at the same time uncertain of himself, hot tempered, foul tongued.

Genres: History

304 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1984

About the author

Richard Alexander Hough was a British author and historian specializing in naval history. As a child, he was obsessed with making model warships and collecting information about navies around the world. In 1941, he joined the Royal Air Force and trained at a flying school near Los Angeles. He flew Hurricanes and Typhoons and was wounded in action.

After World War II, Hough worked as a part-time delivery driver for a wine shop, while looking for employment involving books. He finally joined the publishing house Bodley Head, and then Hamish Hamilton, where he eventually headed the children’s book division.

His work as a publisher inspired him to turn to writing himself in 1950, and he went on to write more than ninety books over a long and successful career. Best-known for his works of naval history and his biographies, he also wrote war novels and books for children (under the pseudonym Bruce Carter), all of which sold in huge numbers around the world. His works include The Longest Battle: The War at Sea 1939-45, Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century and best-selling biographies of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Captain James Cook. Captain Bligh and Mr Christian, his 1972 account of the mutiny on the Bounty, was the basis of the 1984 film The Bounty, starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson.

Hough was the official historian of the Mountbatten family and a longtime student of Churchill. Winston Churchill figures prominently in nine of his books, including Former Naval Person: Churchill and the Wars at Sea. He won the Daily Express Best Book of the Sea Award in 1972.

Reviews

[Daniel Villines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upon finishing Charles Nordhoff's Mutiny on the Bounty I had an uneasy feeling about the book. I had questions concerning the truth of the story and the defamation of Captain Bligh. There were subtle contradictions in the story that irked me to the point where I needed a factual interpretation of the historical record so that I could move on. Hence, chosen mostly by chance, I read Richard Hough's The Bounty.

Hough presented the record of available information regarding the voyage of the Bounty, Bligh, and the mutiny. I found it a relief to know that portions of Nordhoff's novel were manipulated for his purposes. It was also a relief to know that while Captain Bligh is mostly to blame for the mutiny, his faults do not rest with the long-term tyrannical unhinging of Bligh as depicted by Nordhoff.

There were a host of circumstances that contributed to the mutiny some of which can be attributed directly to the Royal Navy in their planning of the voyage. Other circumstances rest with the hypersensitive Fletcher Christian, who overreacted with the mutiny in response to the strictly verbal punishment imposed on him by Bligh. However, Bligh's shortcomings in knowing how to command sailors at sea are where most of the circumstances lie.

In US Navy terms, Bligh was a mustang. He was commissioned as an officer after working his way up from an ordinary seaman. I think that this limited Bligh’s exposure to more nuanced methods of command and the various processes needed to maintain unit cohesion. At that time, discipline during Bligh’s career was maintained by harsh punishment, which is what Bligh used on his men when required. Bligh was actually very brilliant in all that he did, but he was only brilliant to the limits of his abilities. As such, he probably never realized his shortcomings which contributed greatly to the mutiny.

I can see why Nordhoff would find a bunch of nuanced circumstances difficult to work into a swashbuckling novel. But therein rests my foremost issue with Mutiny on the Bounty. Nordhoff wrote a falsification that's more satisfying than real life, and in doing so, he's almost pushed the truth out of the way of actual realization.

[Dale Arndell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the text that the 1984 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson was based on. I read through the book in less than three days. It is fast paced and analysis the circumstances and motives that led to the mutiny as well as charting the aftermath, Fletcher Christian's flight to escape justice and eventual arrival on Pitcairn's Island and Bligh's extraordinary journey in the Launch boat his subsequent return to England and careers until his death. It also details the hunt by the Royal Navy to track down the muniteers and what happened to the ones they caught. The film, if you have seen it captures much of the actual events but skips out chunks due to the limitations of telling the story in a film format. It really needs a TV mini-series or two films to do the whole story justice(which is what the film makers had originally planned until costs for a two film project could not be met.
The book paints colourful portraits of many of the main protagonists and places you, the reader, in the heart of the action. Bligh's story is of course more detailed as of course he documented it himself and in the subsequent trials - both Bligh's and the captured muniteers as well as accounts of the other loyalists who survived the launchboat after it was set adrift my the mutineers, added their own detailed accounts. The details of what happened on Pitcairn are more hazy as only one muniteer was found still alive when the royal navy found the island 18 years after the mutiny and he had not documented events on the island, but the men - mutineers and Polynesians turned on each other and mostly murdered one another. If you like the film I highly recommend you read the book.

[Michael McGrath · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book on which the film by the same title was based upon, and thankfully so, for it tells a far more fascinating story by attempting, not so much as to fictionalize a la Nordoff and Hall, but to tell the real story taking dialogue almost verbatim from court publications, journals from the crew etc.., Of course, this book, originally titled Captain Bligh and Mister Christian, has since been superceded by Caroline Alexander's grippping account which is also titled the Bounty and Peter Fitzimmons "Mutiny on the Bounty" which gives the reader a sense of urgency in its present tense narration. All three volumes complement each other well, and are in a way trilogy that retreads the most famous and fascinating mutiny of all time.

Note: Readers ought to seek out the hardcover edition of Hough's book, which can be acquired second hand, which contains significant sections (almost the entire Pitcairn chapter for instance) that have since been excised (specially in the shortened kindle edition).

[Mythras · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not authorative but worth a read.

The story itself is enthralling, no matter who tells it. This one maintained my interest until the end, but it is certainly not a definitive account. Although some sources are vaguely referenced there is very little factual verification. As an example, the opening direct dialogue reads as fiction but seems to be reported as fact and very early raises questions of credibility.
This said, the book does often convey the heroics of Bligh’s voyage to safety, the despair of those serving under him, the decadence of the long stay in the Tahitian paradise, and explains convincingly the effect this had on ship’s discipline and duty.
Overall, a sideways glimpse at a complex piece of history that might expose an occasional new insight.

[Kathy O · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book that kept my attention all the way through. The picture it paints of life at sea or in the South Pacific Islands in the 18th century is not a pretty one--it was a hard life led by adventurous and skilled but difficult men. It's worth a read if you are interested in adventure and history. From an anthropologist's perspective, there is very little insight into the culture and people of the South Pacific, despite prolonged interactions and much trading. Of course, the enslavement and treatment of the native peoples is abhorrent and this is not given quite the attention it deserves.