Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
After the Mutiny
BLIGH'S ISLANDS (FIJI), c.1790
The first time that Captain William Bligh encountered these islands - and named this 'dis-
covery' after himself - he was not in circumstances that would allow him to stop to chart
them. He had been cast adrift in an open boat, thousands of miles from the nearest settlement,
and had to navigate to safety with 18 of his crew who remained loyal to him after the no-
torious mutiny on HMS
Bounty
. The broken line on this chart, which runs diagonally from
lower right to top left, tracks this journey in the
Bounty's
launch over four days from 4 May
1789 - just a week after their ignominious expulsion from the commandeered ship. The lar-
ger islands at top left, with green-tinted contours, were also observed at this time. The strait
between them is still named Bligh Water, although the archipelago is now known in English
as Fiji.
Bligh returned to these islands in 1792, several years after the Bounty fiasco, with plans
to 'verify my observations during my distressing Voyage', from the pleasanter quarters of his
