Mutiny on the Bounty - Again!

Bounty Boat Replica

It was in April 1789 that the famous ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ occurred just off the waters of the islands of Ha’apai in the Kingdom of Tonga. The story goes that, whilst in the Pacific, the Bounty crew were attracted to the idyllic life and were angered by the (alleged) cruelty of their commanding officer William Bligh. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian and some of his followers and they tried to get Bligh to sail the Bounty back to Tahiti because they terribly missed their Tahitian mistresses. Bligh did not agree with the mutineers and he insisted they continue sailing to Australia.

Fletcher Christian and his followers then cast commanding officer William Bligh and Bligh’s loyal crew adrift in a boat near Tofua Island in Ha’apai. Whilst Fletcher and the mutineers sailed to Pitcairn Island and settled there, Bligh and his men sailed for 42 days and over an epic 3,700 nautical miles from Ha’apai in the Kingdom of Tonga to Kupang in Timor in an overloaded boat with little food or water and no charts.

The story has been retold in movies, books and even in song. Now, Australian adventurer Don McIntyre is set to embark on an incredible nautical journey to re-create one of the most extraordinary stories of survival and determination – Captain William Bligh’s 4,000 mile open boat ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ voyage. The re-enactment, following the journey across the Pacific from the Kingdom of Tonga to Timor, will launch on the same day, at the same time and in the same place 221 years after the original mutiny journey - i.e. 28 April.

The seven week expedition aboard the Talisker Bounty Boat – a 25-ft long, 7-ft wide, open wooden vessel – will see McIntyre and his crew facing the same deprivations as the original crew when cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific. Using the replica 18th century traditional open timber whale boat, they will relive Bligh’s nightmare by attempting to sail the same voyage under similar conditions with no charts, no extra landings, no toilet paper, not enough food or water.  Bligh and his crew only had 150 pounds of ships biscuits, 16 two-pound pieces of pork, 6 quarts of rum, 6 bottles of wine and 28 gallons of water  McIntyre and his crew are deliberately not taking enough food and water in order to relive the challenges Bligh faced two centuries ago.

On Friday, 9 April 2010 at the Mitchell Library in Sydney, there will be the final crew send off and many of Bligh's personal artefacts (including his notebook, log book, telescope, personal seal and some letter he wrote to his wife after the mutiny) will be on display.  McIntyre and the crew of the Talisker Bounty Boat are expected to arrive in Nuku’alofa on Monday 12 April, 2010. They will stay at the Royal Sunset Island Resort on ‘Atata Island (offshore from Tongatapu), where they will get everything in order. On Monday 19 April, they will set off on a nine day voyage to the exact location that the mutiny occurred and where Captain William Bligh was forcibly removed from the Bounty. From there, the crew will sail to Tofua in Ha’apai and spend 3 days exploring just as Bligh did after the Mutiny. The expedition even hopes to visit the cave that Bligh and his men sheltered in while on the Tofua Island. From there the crew will sail on and mark the beginning of their replica voyage.

Talisker’s Bounty Boat Expedition will attempt to raise over $250,000 for the Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease (SIF), which is the world’s first research Institute into Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.  They will also use the voyage to monitor sea life and water temperatures in the Pacific and work with academics to compare their findings with the detailed log that Bligh kept.