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Mr Bligh's Bad Language: Passion, Power and Theater on H. M. Armed Vessel Bounty
"Captain Bligh" is a cliche of our times for the extravagant and violent misuse of power. In fact, William Bligh was one of the least physically violent disciplinarians in the British navy. That paradox inspires the author to ask why, then, did Bligh have a mutiny? Its answer is to display the theatricality of naval institutions and the mythologizing power of history. Mr Bligh's Bad Language is an anthropological and historical study of the mutiny on the Bounty, and its role in society and culture. Throughout the book, Greg Dening draws on a wide range of intellectual influences, ending with the cinematic versions of the mutiny in the twentieth century.
459 pages, Hardcover
First published June 26, 1992
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216 people want to read
About the author
Greg Dening
19 books1 followerGregory Moore Dening was an Australian historian of the Pacific.
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January 31, 2024
This was more scholarly than rollicking, and I don't mean that as a criticism. It could serve as a History class taught by a very engaging professor to undergraduates in their senior year, which is exactly what it is. You come away not so much with dates and names and rote, but being able to see. So, make yourself Christian or Bligh, be an able seaman or a Tahitian native. What is your view?
This could be clunky at times, but it would not be long before the writing soared:
Creating some sort of private space was an art, a privilege for some and a right for all. Topmen might do it in the shrouds, yarning there in elite companionship. Or in the quiet stretches of the night watches, private spots on the deck or along the gunwales could be found, space to nap, to sew, to fish, to watch the sea. Privacy was not a matter of walls. It was a matter of behaviour, closing the windows of one's soul.
And it could take you to a different world:
It did not matter, sailors used to say, whether he who would piss when he could not whistle slipped or was hauled from the cathead. He was hanged all the same.
Of the mutineers, only three were hanged, and maybe they were not even actual mutineers, just three who didn't make it onto the launch. Others who made it back to London had connections, or lawyers. The rest drowned or were murdered. Only John Adams successfully hid in Polynesia, masked by an alias, until he learned of the second American President.
But why the mutiny in the first instance? The author makes the point that Bligh was no more tyrannical than other commanders. Yet he was no gentleman. He rose, instead, from the very men he captained, so they were less likely to stand his floggings.
The violence of discipline was not inevitable. Any captain could have known how to be a 'gentleman', how to manage the symbolic environment of his wooden world. Any captain could have been relativised by experiencing the otherness in his men's lives. . . . Any captain could have known how much he was the pain of those he flogged, how much he was the hangman of those that mutinied.
But on to this book's odd title. Bad language?
Language is notoriously difficult to recapture in history or in a courtroom. An inflection, a look in the eye, a turn of the lip could make even words like 'scoundrels, damned rascals, hell-hounds' terms of endearment and familiarity, not insult. Or the words could cascade over hearers so constantly that they would not be heard at all. The question is whether and in what way Bligh's language penetrated, wounded and festered. I make the thesis that Bligh's bad language was the ambiguous language of his command. It was bad, not so much because it was intemperate or abusive, but because it was ambiguous, because men could not read in it a right relationship to his authority.
Bligh would have struggled with text messaging, I'd guess.
But speaking of language, the author offers much nautical-speak that has made its way to everyday usage: at loggerheads, cut and run, shake a leg, taken aback, learning the ropes, and crossing the line. And this wonderfully embedded word: Fletcher Christian was and is a nebulous figure.
Which gets us to the author's culminating point, that History and Art have done their work to shape our views of the men on the Bounty. So Bligh, in the form of Charles Laughton or Anthony Hopkins, is and always will be the tyrant. And Fletcher Christian, whether Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando or Mel Gibson, is the hero, ready to die for freedom. I was inclined to quote a lengthy paragraph about how Christian and eight remaining mutineers gathered Tahitian men and women and fled to Pitcairn Island. But just know this: The women they divided, as they were to divide the land, into nine equal shares. . . .He had forced overboard, however, six women who were too old for their needs or too ugly for their tastes. So, maybe not so nebulous.
The author tells us, Historians never observe process. They observe only process interpreted by texts. . . .The texts were collected by those who were dazzled by a miracle. Miracle viewers do not always give a good ethnography. They do make lasting myth.
This could be clunky at times, but it would not be long before the writing soared:
Creating some sort of private space was an art, a privilege for some and a right for all. Topmen might do it in the shrouds, yarning there in elite companionship. Or in the quiet stretches of the night watches, private spots on the deck or along the gunwales could be found, space to nap, to sew, to fish, to watch the sea. Privacy was not a matter of walls. It was a matter of behaviour, closing the windows of one's soul.
And it could take you to a different world:
It did not matter, sailors used to say, whether he who would piss when he could not whistle slipped or was hauled from the cathead. He was hanged all the same.
Of the mutineers, only three were hanged, and maybe they were not even actual mutineers, just three who didn't make it onto the launch. Others who made it back to London had connections, or lawyers. The rest drowned or were murdered. Only John Adams successfully hid in Polynesia, masked by an alias, until he learned of the second American President.
But why the mutiny in the first instance? The author makes the point that Bligh was no more tyrannical than other commanders. Yet he was no gentleman. He rose, instead, from the very men he captained, so they were less likely to stand his floggings.
The violence of discipline was not inevitable. Any captain could have known how to be a 'gentleman', how to manage the symbolic environment of his wooden world. Any captain could have been relativised by experiencing the otherness in his men's lives. . . . Any captain could have known how much he was the pain of those he flogged, how much he was the hangman of those that mutinied.
But on to this book's odd title. Bad language?
Language is notoriously difficult to recapture in history or in a courtroom. An inflection, a look in the eye, a turn of the lip could make even words like 'scoundrels, damned rascals, hell-hounds' terms of endearment and familiarity, not insult. Or the words could cascade over hearers so constantly that they would not be heard at all. The question is whether and in what way Bligh's language penetrated, wounded and festered. I make the thesis that Bligh's bad language was the ambiguous language of his command. It was bad, not so much because it was intemperate or abusive, but because it was ambiguous, because men could not read in it a right relationship to his authority.
Bligh would have struggled with text messaging, I'd guess.
But speaking of language, the author offers much nautical-speak that has made its way to everyday usage: at loggerheads, cut and run, shake a leg, taken aback, learning the ropes, and crossing the line. And this wonderfully embedded word: Fletcher Christian was and is a nebulous figure.
Which gets us to the author's culminating point, that History and Art have done their work to shape our views of the men on the Bounty. So Bligh, in the form of Charles Laughton or Anthony Hopkins, is and always will be the tyrant. And Fletcher Christian, whether Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando or Mel Gibson, is the hero, ready to die for freedom. I was inclined to quote a lengthy paragraph about how Christian and eight remaining mutineers gathered Tahitian men and women and fled to Pitcairn Island. But just know this: The women they divided, as they were to divide the land, into nine equal shares. . . .He had forced overboard, however, six women who were too old for their needs or too ugly for their tastes. So, maybe not so nebulous.
The author tells us, Historians never observe process. They observe only process interpreted by texts. . . .The texts were collected by those who were dazzled by a miracle. Miracle viewers do not always give a good ethnography. They do make lasting myth.
October 20, 2019
This might be my favorite book of the year. I like it because it touches on so many interesting topics...to name just a few :
1. The interaction between the English and the Tahitians.
2. The formation of a new society on Pictairn by Fletcher.
3. The retelling of the narrative by Hollywood to reinforce the notion of Empire.
4. The historiography of the entire event and how we know what we know and whether we can actually believe it.
5. The interaction between Bligh and his crew.
6. The ambiguous use of language and the effect it had on the crew.
7. The practicalities of commanding /organizing an English naval ship in the 18th century.
8. The role of sacrifice in both English and Tahitian society.
9. How violent both the English and Tahitians were.
One key idea I like that the author quotes from E.H Carr - "History is not the past : it is a consciousness of the past used for present purposes.
1. The interaction between the English and the Tahitians.
2. The formation of a new society on Pictairn by Fletcher.
3. The retelling of the narrative by Hollywood to reinforce the notion of Empire.
4. The historiography of the entire event and how we know what we know and whether we can actually believe it.
5. The interaction between Bligh and his crew.
6. The ambiguous use of language and the effect it had on the crew.
7. The practicalities of commanding /organizing an English naval ship in the 18th century.
8. The role of sacrifice in both English and Tahitian society.
9. How violent both the English and Tahitians were.
One key idea I like that the author quotes from E.H Carr - "History is not the past : it is a consciousness of the past used for present purposes.
May 2, 2017
Enjoyable history of the Mutiny on the Bounty giving a complex portrait of the various characters of this seemingly familiar tale that had previously been either ignored or reduced to caricature. Dening’s major strength is recognizing that we all come to historical stories with our own modern biases and by acknowledging the limitations up front of our ability to truly recreate past events he tells an engaging tale of the various ways this story has been used to “push an agenda” in different eras. He provides a lot of detail about this period of active British exploration of the South Seas and does much to reveal what he can of native responses to these encounters in as much detail as he can from the source materials. He makes a great effort to acknowledge the complexity of motivations while also never forgetting the limits to what can be truly known at a distance. Wonderful book.
May 6, 2023
Mr. Blight's Bad Language is a tale that sets sail on the Bounty for the south seas, embarking on a difficult voyage. Along the way, the first mate, Christian Fletcher, falls in love with a native girl, leading to a mutiny against the captain, William Blight. The mutineers choose to stay on their paradise island and found a society on Pitcairn island that manages to thrive for years. Denning chooses to represent the whole story as a theatre, with three acts, two scenes, a narrative describing the events, and reflection on these events.In his work, Denning argues that Blight's failure was in not knowing how to play his part.
September 13, 2021
Author Greg Dening, Australian History Professor of the Pacific, has artistically woven together a richly textured tapestry of a momentous era of 19th century naval history. Using the Mutiny on the Bounty as the staging event unfolding within a vastly larger theatrical canvas of the Pacific region and Island cultures, Dening deftly connects the projection of power metaphors of the British empire and its naval fleets, the subjugated sailors disciplined with brutal floggings that led to high desertion rates, and the conflicts arising from ignorance and arrogance regarding the mythic structures that prevailed among native islanders. There are complex, escalating dramas unfolding on board and on island, but there are also multiple layers interacting from the highest echelons of the British empire and the Admiralty setting rigid hierarchical "performance roles" down through Captains, seamen, and Islanders.
Forget everything you think you may have learned by watching any of the highly romanticized and overly simplified Hollywood movies -- a 1933 version starring Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian, a 1935 version with Clark Gable (& Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh), a 1962 horrible version with Marlon Brando (& Trevor Howard as Bligh), and a 1984 disastrous version with Mel Gibson (& Anthony Hopkins as Bligh).
The 450pp book requires a patient reader, given how many facets Dening is pulling together before unravelling the action. But the reader will be rewarded with a series of gems, and by the end of the book will have fomented your imagination to such a degree you no doubt will be desiring more narratives and tales from this era of wooden sailing ships.
The Bounty's mission was to secure a supply of breadfruit. As National Geographic described on one of the anniversaries of the infamous mutiny (April 28, 1789), "Artocarpus altilis, is a member of the fig family, a tall, leathery-leaved tropical tree that bears prickly, yellow-green, football-sized fruits. Europeans first discovered it in 1769 when Captain Cook arrived in Tahiti. Along for the ride was botanist Joseph Banks, who zeroed in on breadfruit as a potential source of cheap and nutritious food for slaves on the sugar plantations of the British West Indies. Banks pitched the idea to King George III, who authorized Bligh to spearhead the breadfruit-gathering expedition."
Interestingly, Captain Bligh was not among the Captains most notorious for flogging their crews, in fact he issued the least amount of floggings. Roughly 20 percent of sailors suffered flogging, with Bligh ordering less than 10 percent of his crews to be flogged, while Captain George Vancouver flogged nearly 50 percent of his crew. One Vancouver sailor received 252 lashes over nine floggings!
In a tantalizing tidbit, Dening relates why Captain Cook went from being treated as a god-like figure by Hawaiian islanders to being hacked to death, which requires an understanding of the islanders' myths and rituals. Cook had chosen Bligh to serve as Master of the ship Resolution, and while beating a retreat in a boat to the ship, Bligh witnessed Cook's gruesome dismemberment. There is an arresting irony that Dening recounts at the outset of his book, of the great frustration and resentment Bligh felt towards the Admiralty for failing to sign off on his departure date, delaying the start for several weeks, and causing Bligh to miss a period of excellent winds. As a result they hit bad very bad weather, which required a prolonged stay on Tahiti. That lengthy stay may have served as the trigger point unleashing the mutiny, which may never have occurred if Bligh had been able to sail earlier and catch the good winds.
Forget everything you think you may have learned by watching any of the highly romanticized and overly simplified Hollywood movies -- a 1933 version starring Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian, a 1935 version with Clark Gable (& Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh), a 1962 horrible version with Marlon Brando (& Trevor Howard as Bligh), and a 1984 disastrous version with Mel Gibson (& Anthony Hopkins as Bligh).
The 450pp book requires a patient reader, given how many facets Dening is pulling together before unravelling the action. But the reader will be rewarded with a series of gems, and by the end of the book will have fomented your imagination to such a degree you no doubt will be desiring more narratives and tales from this era of wooden sailing ships.
The Bounty's mission was to secure a supply of breadfruit. As National Geographic described on one of the anniversaries of the infamous mutiny (April 28, 1789), "Artocarpus altilis, is a member of the fig family, a tall, leathery-leaved tropical tree that bears prickly, yellow-green, football-sized fruits. Europeans first discovered it in 1769 when Captain Cook arrived in Tahiti. Along for the ride was botanist Joseph Banks, who zeroed in on breadfruit as a potential source of cheap and nutritious food for slaves on the sugar plantations of the British West Indies. Banks pitched the idea to King George III, who authorized Bligh to spearhead the breadfruit-gathering expedition."
Interestingly, Captain Bligh was not among the Captains most notorious for flogging their crews, in fact he issued the least amount of floggings. Roughly 20 percent of sailors suffered flogging, with Bligh ordering less than 10 percent of his crews to be flogged, while Captain George Vancouver flogged nearly 50 percent of his crew. One Vancouver sailor received 252 lashes over nine floggings!
In a tantalizing tidbit, Dening relates why Captain Cook went from being treated as a god-like figure by Hawaiian islanders to being hacked to death, which requires an understanding of the islanders' myths and rituals. Cook had chosen Bligh to serve as Master of the ship Resolution, and while beating a retreat in a boat to the ship, Bligh witnessed Cook's gruesome dismemberment. There is an arresting irony that Dening recounts at the outset of his book, of the great frustration and resentment Bligh felt towards the Admiralty for failing to sign off on his departure date, delaying the start for several weeks, and causing Bligh to miss a period of excellent winds. As a result they hit bad very bad weather, which required a prolonged stay on Tahiti. That lengthy stay may have served as the trigger point unleashing the mutiny, which may never have occurred if Bligh had been able to sail earlier and catch the good winds.
August 19, 2018
This is a serious historian's analysis of historical methods by using the historical events of the Mutiny on the Bounty and its after events.
Greg Dening divides his book into three Acts, The Ship, The Beach and The Island. In The Ship he describes the events of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the awful voyage of the Pandora which carried some of the men left on the Bounty back to England to trial. The Beach examines the Europeans and Polynesians in Tahiti and on other islands such as Hawaii and The Island looks at the events on Pitcairn Island. There are scenes of reflection in each Act and a fascinating look at Twentieth Century movies about the mutiny, all five of them, and how we have incorporated the Mutiny and the Bounty into some sort of cultural literacy that has nothing to do with history and events and facts and context.
Dening asks what happened and why and surmises that we cannot actually ever know but that the story then becomes important for other reasons and part of our own mythology. And just the examination of this becomes a wonderful exploration of the what and the why. What did the sailors mean when they complained about William Bligh's bad language? He was far from being brutal. Why was he unable to command the respect of the men? Why did they not regard him as a gentleman?
The chapter on Tahiti looks at the rituals and symbolic behaviours of the Europeans and the Tahitians and how neither group really understood the other although each group took part in one another's rituals and thought they knew what they were doing. Bizarrely the Europeans thought that raising a flag and installing a plaque gave them possession of the land. The Tahitians incorporated pieces of the flag into their own ceremonies. Dening was a former Jesuit priest and he knows about rituals and the mixed meanings people take from them.
The chapter on Pitcairn Island was like an awful horror story that somehow I didn't know about. It was an awfulness arising from violence, lack of order, exploitation and religiosity with all the mutineers except John Adams dead within three years, most of them violently.
Dening quotes E H Carr who says that an historical fact is not what happened but that small part of what has happened that has been used by historians to talk about. History is not the past: it is a consciousness of the past used for present purposes. Twentieth Century Hollywood needed Bligh to be a brutal tyrant and Christian to be a man fighting for liberty and justice. And we want the Tahiti to be a paradise. It wasn't. It was a lot of things but it was also a brutal society that practised human sacrifice.
Charles Laughton played the part of William Bligh in the 1935 film. 'Laughton told of going to Gieves, the military tailors in Savile Row , London, with inquiries about eighteenth century naval uniforms. He was told by the clerk assisting him that, if he would wait, they would check Mr Bligh's measurements from an account on the last uniform Bligh had ordered. Laughton himself lost fifty five pounds in some historical awe at his discovery.'
We love historical artifacts. I love such historical artifacts too.
Dening explains that he taught a detailed course on this subject to undergraduate students and 'that out of events so trivial and unimportant as the Bounty they would discover questions large enough for them to answer as well as the creativity to find the mode of their answering them.' I wish that I had had him as my teacher.
Greg Dening divides his book into three Acts, The Ship, The Beach and The Island. In The Ship he describes the events of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the awful voyage of the Pandora which carried some of the men left on the Bounty back to England to trial. The Beach examines the Europeans and Polynesians in Tahiti and on other islands such as Hawaii and The Island looks at the events on Pitcairn Island. There are scenes of reflection in each Act and a fascinating look at Twentieth Century movies about the mutiny, all five of them, and how we have incorporated the Mutiny and the Bounty into some sort of cultural literacy that has nothing to do with history and events and facts and context.
Dening asks what happened and why and surmises that we cannot actually ever know but that the story then becomes important for other reasons and part of our own mythology. And just the examination of this becomes a wonderful exploration of the what and the why. What did the sailors mean when they complained about William Bligh's bad language? He was far from being brutal. Why was he unable to command the respect of the men? Why did they not regard him as a gentleman?
The chapter on Tahiti looks at the rituals and symbolic behaviours of the Europeans and the Tahitians and how neither group really understood the other although each group took part in one another's rituals and thought they knew what they were doing. Bizarrely the Europeans thought that raising a flag and installing a plaque gave them possession of the land. The Tahitians incorporated pieces of the flag into their own ceremonies. Dening was a former Jesuit priest and he knows about rituals and the mixed meanings people take from them.
The chapter on Pitcairn Island was like an awful horror story that somehow I didn't know about. It was an awfulness arising from violence, lack of order, exploitation and religiosity with all the mutineers except John Adams dead within three years, most of them violently.
Dening quotes E H Carr who says that an historical fact is not what happened but that small part of what has happened that has been used by historians to talk about. History is not the past: it is a consciousness of the past used for present purposes. Twentieth Century Hollywood needed Bligh to be a brutal tyrant and Christian to be a man fighting for liberty and justice. And we want the Tahiti to be a paradise. It wasn't. It was a lot of things but it was also a brutal society that practised human sacrifice.
Charles Laughton played the part of William Bligh in the 1935 film. 'Laughton told of going to Gieves, the military tailors in Savile Row , London, with inquiries about eighteenth century naval uniforms. He was told by the clerk assisting him that, if he would wait, they would check Mr Bligh's measurements from an account on the last uniform Bligh had ordered. Laughton himself lost fifty five pounds in some historical awe at his discovery.'
We love historical artifacts. I love such historical artifacts too.
Dening explains that he taught a detailed course on this subject to undergraduate students and 'that out of events so trivial and unimportant as the Bounty they would discover questions large enough for them to answer as well as the creativity to find the mode of their answering them.' I wish that I had had him as my teacher.
September 6, 2025
First published in 1992, Greg Dening’s study of the eighteenth century mutiny aboard the naval vessel The Bounty is much more than the simple history of the mutiny itself. In no way does it try to glamourise the event as it explores, with staggering detail, the causes of the mutiny, and the social and cultural history of the eighteenth century.
Few written records are available of the actual events, either because of the large-scale illiteracy among the crew, or because of the lack of pen, paper and ink when castaway. There is also an element of self-justification or exculpation in any records or depositions by the mutineers who survived the trial, or their accusers. ‘Bad Language’ goes on to describe the transformation of the mutiny into a matter of legend, and thence into romantic fiction.
From recruiting, provisioning and designing the Bounty for scientific exploration and the gathering of botanical specimens, to the hardships on board, to the anthropological and cultural beliefs of the Polynesian and Pacific Ocean islanders, ‘Bad Language’ reconstructs the tensions, the lusts and passions, but most of all, the power politics of the mutineers. The very qualities that once made Fletcher Christian the chief mutineer aboard the Bounty, now render him unfit for leadership.
Given the historical weight of the incident, the murders, the public trials and hangings, the author has presented the nearly five hundred pages as entertainment, instead of a heavy accumulation of detail upon detail. In itself, this is an irony, given that the earliest presentations of the Bounty story were presented as theatre in the eighteenth century itself, with lavish illustrations and posters describing the savages and the brave mutineers as a prelude to the stage reenactment.
Of course, the exotic locations where the Bounty had to stop for fresh water, food and repairs lacked nothing in their differentness to western culture, and added to the element of fiction. Tahiti also saw the gradual dehumanisation of the Bounty’s crew into savage survivors. In contrast, two other mutinies which took place at around the same time, in Spithead and Nore, though they both had greater implications for the Admiralty, the Navy, naval recruitment and labour conditions, were less spectacular in the public imagination.
Power and sacrifice - sacrifice having different connotations for islanders and mutineers - are the two main supports of the book. Anthropology, passion and biography (as much as possible with men who might have given assumed names on joining), are the others. Pitcairn Island, on which Fletcher Christian landed with his small band of mutineers, along with native men and women from Tahiti, might have been an Eden, the Utopia that poets and philosophers have dreamt of, except for the passions that govern men. And women, too, in this case.
The book closes with an utterly brilliant study of the five films that were released since the invention of moving pictures. While some of the actors (Charles Laughton, Marlon Brando, Clark Table and Errol Flynn) fixed the mind of the public forever on the persons they represented, the films themselves distorted fact and manipulated history to destroy all semblance to life and reality in the eighteenth century.
Few written records are available of the actual events, either because of the large-scale illiteracy among the crew, or because of the lack of pen, paper and ink when castaway. There is also an element of self-justification or exculpation in any records or depositions by the mutineers who survived the trial, or their accusers. ‘Bad Language’ goes on to describe the transformation of the mutiny into a matter of legend, and thence into romantic fiction.
From recruiting, provisioning and designing the Bounty for scientific exploration and the gathering of botanical specimens, to the hardships on board, to the anthropological and cultural beliefs of the Polynesian and Pacific Ocean islanders, ‘Bad Language’ reconstructs the tensions, the lusts and passions, but most of all, the power politics of the mutineers. The very qualities that once made Fletcher Christian the chief mutineer aboard the Bounty, now render him unfit for leadership.
Given the historical weight of the incident, the murders, the public trials and hangings, the author has presented the nearly five hundred pages as entertainment, instead of a heavy accumulation of detail upon detail. In itself, this is an irony, given that the earliest presentations of the Bounty story were presented as theatre in the eighteenth century itself, with lavish illustrations and posters describing the savages and the brave mutineers as a prelude to the stage reenactment.
Of course, the exotic locations where the Bounty had to stop for fresh water, food and repairs lacked nothing in their differentness to western culture, and added to the element of fiction. Tahiti also saw the gradual dehumanisation of the Bounty’s crew into savage survivors. In contrast, two other mutinies which took place at around the same time, in Spithead and Nore, though they both had greater implications for the Admiralty, the Navy, naval recruitment and labour conditions, were less spectacular in the public imagination.
Power and sacrifice - sacrifice having different connotations for islanders and mutineers - are the two main supports of the book. Anthropology, passion and biography (as much as possible with men who might have given assumed names on joining), are the others. Pitcairn Island, on which Fletcher Christian landed with his small band of mutineers, along with native men and women from Tahiti, might have been an Eden, the Utopia that poets and philosophers have dreamt of, except for the passions that govern men. And women, too, in this case.
The book closes with an utterly brilliant study of the five films that were released since the invention of moving pictures. While some of the actors (Charles Laughton, Marlon Brando, Clark Table and Errol Flynn) fixed the mind of the public forever on the persons they represented, the films themselves distorted fact and manipulated history to destroy all semblance to life and reality in the eighteenth century.
December 22, 2025
This read wasn't at all what I expected, however, for the main part it is very interesting and informative, although it highlights the disparaging attitudes of the English, poor treatment, mocking and making fun of South Sea Islander’s lack of inhibition, cultural beliefs and their natural way of life. For in fact the English with their constrained lives, class distinctions*, snobbery, unclean cities and rivers one would think that coming upon the beauty of Tahiti or Hawaii jealousy would more likely ensue.
Many years ago I was introduced to a descendant of Fletcher Christian, who had the last name as Christian and who recounted some of the family history, born on Norfolk Island. As the years proceeded after the death of Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers the remaining settlers of Pitcairn Island on 8 June 1856 arrived on Norfolk Island. Bounty Day is a re-enactment of the landing at Kingston Pier. Pitcairn Island became uninhabitable and too far away from civilisation.
Captain Bligh served under Captain Cook as Master of the Resolution on Cook's third voyage who was a skilled navigator and he deeply respected Cook, later adopting many of his leadership techniques. It's hard not to be affected by the numerous movies made regarding the Mutiny on the Bounty to not be persuaded that Bligh was nothing but a tyrant and a bully. However the read does point out that the punishment of flogging in particular was pretty much par for course on any ship of the time as well foul language from those higher up on the chain of command.
There always seemed to be the problem of poorly built ships, ones that started to leak after just leaving England. They were not especially built ships for such voyages that occurred during this time for the purposes of exploring the Pacific Ocean, a vast body of water with all the elements coming from South America, El Niño and La Niña, events that significantly affect global weather, as well as the extreme changes of weather at the equator of either the wet or dry seasons and cyclones. With limited navigational tools, leaky ships and many dysfunctional seamen as well having to replenish food and water stocks it would take a strong leader to contain the crew even with the assistance of Petty Officers and Warrant Officers. Statistics reveal that over 50% of the crew were ordinary “seamen”, using the term loosely…., as some would be runaways from the law, petty thieves and completely illiterate. On Pitcairn Island only one person could read and write, the boy Jack Adams, Bligh's clerk, had taught him to read and write.
As was alluded to by a commentator towards the end of the read “that Fletcher Christian and George Young had influence over the Bounty because they were ‘genteely connected’*. Money or birth was the mark of a ‘gentlemen’, Bligh had neither and, for whatever reason, had not acquired the language of the ‘as if’ gentility of a professional officer”.
Many years ago I was introduced to a descendant of Fletcher Christian, who had the last name as Christian and who recounted some of the family history, born on Norfolk Island. As the years proceeded after the death of Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers the remaining settlers of Pitcairn Island on 8 June 1856 arrived on Norfolk Island. Bounty Day is a re-enactment of the landing at Kingston Pier. Pitcairn Island became uninhabitable and too far away from civilisation.
Captain Bligh served under Captain Cook as Master of the Resolution on Cook's third voyage who was a skilled navigator and he deeply respected Cook, later adopting many of his leadership techniques. It's hard not to be affected by the numerous movies made regarding the Mutiny on the Bounty to not be persuaded that Bligh was nothing but a tyrant and a bully. However the read does point out that the punishment of flogging in particular was pretty much par for course on any ship of the time as well foul language from those higher up on the chain of command.
There always seemed to be the problem of poorly built ships, ones that started to leak after just leaving England. They were not especially built ships for such voyages that occurred during this time for the purposes of exploring the Pacific Ocean, a vast body of water with all the elements coming from South America, El Niño and La Niña, events that significantly affect global weather, as well as the extreme changes of weather at the equator of either the wet or dry seasons and cyclones. With limited navigational tools, leaky ships and many dysfunctional seamen as well having to replenish food and water stocks it would take a strong leader to contain the crew even with the assistance of Petty Officers and Warrant Officers. Statistics reveal that over 50% of the crew were ordinary “seamen”, using the term loosely…., as some would be runaways from the law, petty thieves and completely illiterate. On Pitcairn Island only one person could read and write, the boy Jack Adams, Bligh's clerk, had taught him to read and write.
As was alluded to by a commentator towards the end of the read “that Fletcher Christian and George Young had influence over the Bounty because they were ‘genteely connected’*. Money or birth was the mark of a ‘gentlemen’, Bligh had neither and, for whatever reason, had not acquired the language of the ‘as if’ gentility of a professional officer”.
March 10, 2023
Found this book difficult to read a bit too academic for me
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November 29, 2023IMHO: life's too short for this book ;) Tried while trapped on a ship for ~3 weeks, but it still wasn't engaging enough.
July 14, 2024
While informative it was rather bloated and sprawling.
July 24, 2024
This was really good! Less history (although there were certainly names and dates and all that) and more about representation as an ongoing process that influences our view of the past.
October 18, 2020
Such a creative approach. Adds another layer to an already exciting narrative.
January 5, 2009
Picked it up for a dollar, so how wrong can you go? Learned a lot about the South Pacific in 19th Century, not as much about the real causes of the mutiny as I had hoped. One interesting fact -- not all of those who stayed with Christian were mutineers, not all who stayed with Bligh were loyalists. Also, Bligh was less brutal than the average captain.
May 3, 2009
First published in 1992, this is now an established classic in the field of eighteenth-century studies. Painfully introspective and over-theorized in parts, compelling and lucid in others, it's by no means an easy read, but its constant ability to ruffle, unsettle, and get under one's skin is what makes it special.
December 13, 2013
I had to read this book for class. I really liked how Dening gave another theory as to why the Mutiny on the Bounty happened. It was interesting to learn more about Bligh and the way that he treated people. He was not a mean person per say but he did not talk to people very respectfully. This is defiantly a re-read.
April 17, 2010
*sigh* Reads like someone's history dissertation. But the passion he has for completely deconstructiong what we know of this event in every possible context (it seemed) made me feel compelled to soldier on. Well written but this dead horse is officially beaten.
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April 1, 2016A beautifully written classic of historical anthropology that offers an intimate culturally-sensitive lens on the ill-fated Bounty voyage, as well as addressing contemporary literary and filmic representations of the mutiny.
June 12, 2010
Immensely entertaining, exceptionally well done.
July 20, 2010
I couldn't finish this book. Dening seemed far more interested in writing smugly than in telling the story. Very tiresome.
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