Glynn Christian - The Truth About the Mutiny on HMAV Bounty and the Fate of Fletcher Christian

The Truth about the Mutiny on HMAV Bounty

Glynn Christians painstaking research into his notorious ancestor has resulted in a fascinating new insight into the mutiny on Her Majestys Armed Vessel Bounty on 28 April 1789, and in particular events thereafter. He describes in a detail that I have never come across before all the characters involved, which makes the account truly compelling. His book gives a real flavour of what life was like in ships during that period and in particular the extended deployments amongst the Pacific islands on the other side of the world.

He wrestles with the psychological drivers of the key protagonists raising some fascinating views.

But what I found most intriguing was the depth of research into the women who played such a key role in events and particularly the settlement on Pitcairn and its subsequent development. His anthropological research about the Pacific islanders and their lives is riveting and I had not realised how key their traditions and women were to the drama. The book is a must for anyone interested in gaining a balanced view of the mutiny and its aftermath. Admiral Lord West GCB DSC Former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff

an insightful book on the beginnings of Pitcairns history and on his ancestor Fletcher Christian.

Its a first class read, historically accurate, highly recommended. Councillor Leslie Jaques OBE | Government of Pitcairn Islands

explores the remarkable link between Milntown, the Christian familys ancient Isle of Man seat, and the political revolution on Pitcairn that gave the first votes to women and education to girls. Charles Guard, Chairman, The Milntown Trust, Isle of Man

We should not celebrate mutiny but learn from it. Glynns scholarly research reveals Fletcher Christian as a courageous leader and social pioneer, clearly looking for better, fairer and more inclusive community life. Commodore Gerry Christian AM Royal Australian Navy

A unique and definitive history of Bounty and her passengers fates on mysterious Pitcairn. Major-General Peter Williams CMG OBE

a compulsive and fascinating read. Written by a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, it shines new light on both the mutiny and what came after, including votes for women. Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE FRGS Gold Medallist Royal Geographical Society

Praise for Mrs Christian BOUNTY Mutineer

Sensationally exciting I had no idea Pitcairns women were first to have the vote. Joanna Lumley OBE FRGS

sheds tremendous light on the Pitcairn story. Distinguished Professor Dame Anne Salmond, South Pacific Anthropologist

not only a thoughtful but also a gripping and moving story with wide implications. Rolf DuRietz, Bounty scholar

And the Fate of Fletcher Christian

Glynn Christian

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

Pen & Sword History

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire - Philadelphia

Copyright Glynn Christian, 2021

ISBN 978 1 39901 418 2

eISBN 978 1 39901 419 9

Mobi ISBN 978 1 39901 420 5

The right of Glynn Christian to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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I t is now more than 230 years since Fletcher Christians 1789 mutiny aboard HMAV Bounty that took the ship from William Bligh, yet the amount of misinformation and twisting of facts still published is astonishing.

Here are the facts collected by me during more than forty years research and writing, including a sailing expedition from Tahiti to Tubuai and Pitcairn Island. Where something is an interpretation or my opinion, I make this clear.

There is much more about Fletcher Christian than William Bligh because there are many books about Bligh, and what young Christian did as a social revolutionary on Tubuai and Pitcairn Island after the mutiny is remarkable, but little known or appreciated.

Bountys epic search for a home included building a massive fortress on Tubuai Island before the mutineers made remote Pitcairn Island the first permanent British settlement in the South Pacific. As eighteenth-century Europeans they had no idea how to settle and thrive there, so finding that hideaway was no guarantee of survival.

The story of the mutiny on HMAV Bounty is that of men; the subsequent history of Pitcairn Island is about women, revolutionary women who reinvented themselves to create a better future for their sons and daughters than ever was possible on Tahiti.

Because history has usually been written by men about men, the Polynesian women who made life possible for the refugees are little known. Yet Pitcairns Foremothers became the first women in the world permanently to have the vote and to make education compulsory for girls, direct results of the revolutionary social thinking of Fletcher Christian.

Youll discover, as I did, that the story of the 1789 mutiny aboard HMAV Bounty , and what happened afterwards, proves fact is stranger than fiction.

Glynn Christian

London, 2021

When they were discovered in 1808, Pitcairners called Polynesian men blacks. Few of the children had seen one, because the six Maohi men who arrived on Bounty were long dead. Pitcairns foremothers never referred to themselves as black, so its likely the term was copied from the white men, further to differentiate their Pitcairn identities from those they escaped on Tahiti, Tubuai and Huahine. When used in this book, I feel the pejorative sense it gives paints an accurate picture of how Europeans thought all coloured races inferior at the time, and by no means reflects my own opinion or that of the twenty-first century.