The complement of , the Royal Navy ship on which a historic mutiny occurred in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789, comprised 46 men on its departure from England in December 1787 and 44 at the time of the mutiny, including her commander Lieutenant William Bligh. All but two of those aboard were Royal Navy personnel; the exceptions were two civilian botanists engaged to supervise the breadfruit plants Bounty was tasked to take from Tahiti to the West Indies. Of the 44 aboard at the time of the mutiny, 19 (including Bligh) were set adrift in the ship's launch, while 25, a mixture of mutineers and detainees, remained on board under Fletcher Christian. Bligh led his loyalists to safety in the open boat, and ultimately back to England. The mutineers divided—most settled on Tahiti, where they were captured by in 1791 and returned to England for trial, while Christian and eight others evaded discovery on Pitcairn Island.
The Admiralty rated Bounty as a cutter, the smallest category of warship—this meant that she was commanded not by a captain but by a lieutenant, with no other commissioned officers aboard, and without the usual detachment of Royal Marines that ships' commanders could use to enforce their authority. Directly beneath Bligh in the chain of command were his warrant officers, appointed by the Navy Board and headed by the sailing master John Fryer. The other warrant officers were the boatswain, the surgeon, the carpenter, and the gunner. Two master's mates and two midshipmen were rated as petty officers; to these were added several honorary midshipmen—so-called "young gentlemen" who aspired to naval careers. They signed on the ship's roster as able seamen, but were quartered with the midshipmen and treated on equal terms with them.
Most on Bounty were chosen by Bligh, or were recommended to him. However, a draft list of the crew before the voyage includes several who did not sail, including two pressed men who are thought to have deserted. Of the eventual crew, William Peckover, the gunner, and Joseph Coleman, the armourer, had been with Bligh when he was Captain James Cook's sailing master on during the explorer's third voyage (1776–80). Several others had sailed under Bligh more recently, including Christian, who had twice voyaged with Bligh to the West Indies on the merchantman Britannia. The two had formed a master-pupil relationship through which Christian had become a highly skilled navigator; Bligh gave him one of the master's mate's berths on Bounty, and in March 1788, promoted him to the rank of Acting Lieutenant, effectively making Christian second-in-command. Another of the young gentlemen recommended to Bligh was 15-year-old Peter Heywood, a Manxman and a distant relation of Christian's. His recommendation came from Bligh's father-in-law, who was a Heywood family friend.
The two botanists, or "gardeners", were chosen by Sir Joseph Banks, the president of the Royal Society and the expedition's chief promoter. The chief botanist, David Nelson, was another veteran of Cook's third voyage and had learned some of the Tahitians' language. Nelson's assistant, William Brown, was a former midshipman who had seen naval action against the French. Banks also helped to secure the midshipmen's berths for two of his protégés, Thomas Hayward and John Hallett. Overall, Bountys crew was relatively youthful, the majority being under 30. At the time of departure Bligh was 33 years old and Fryer a year older. Among the older crew members were the gunner, William Peckover, who had sailed on all three of Cook's voyages, and Lawrence Lebogue, formerly sailmaker on the Britannia. The youngest aboard were Hallett and Heywood, who were both 15 when they left England.
Complement
NameRank or functionLoyalistor mutineerActivity post-mutinyFate—Open boat voyageSafe return: died 1817LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return: died 1817LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return; died Royal Navy Hospital March 1833William PeckoverLoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return; died May 1819LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return; died 1834 Last known survivor of the Bounty Crew——Died in Tahiti before mutiny 1788MutineerSailed to Pitcairn Murdered on Pitcairn, 1793LoyalistOpen boat voyageDied in Batavia, 1789LoyalistOpen boat voyage Died en route home from Batavia, c. 1789LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return, died 1794LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return, died 1797/98DisputedSettled TahitiCaptured, convicted, pardoned; rose to Post Captain Royal Navy died 1831DisputedSettled TahitiCaptured, drowned on Pandora 1791LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return; rose to Captain Royal Navy and died Sept 11,1820MutineerSailed to PitcairnTook no active part in mutiny yet joined it after it was over; died on Pitcairn, 1800LoyalistOpen boat voyageDied in Batavia, 1789LoyalistOpen boat voyageKilled in attack on open boat at Tofua May 2, 1789LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return, died at sea 1801DisputedSettled TahitiCaptured, convicted, pardoned, died at sea 1807MutineerSailed to PitcairnMurdered on Pitcairn, 1793Loyalist (detained)Settled TahitiCaptured, tried, acquitted; died December 1793Bounty's CompanyLoyalist (detained)Settled TahitiCaptured, tried, acquitted; reported to have gone into Merchant marine service.LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return. died Royal Navy service 1795MutineerSettled TahitiMurdered in Tahiti, c. 1790Loyalist (detained)Settled TahitiCaptured, tried, acquitted; last record: discharged from HMS Director (1784) to Yarmouth Hospital ship November 1796LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return. Became Royal Navy paymaster and died on an unknown date prior to 1825.Royal Naval Biography pub 1825 p.762LoyalistOpen boat voyageSafe return; died unknown date prior to 1825MutineerSettled TahitiCaptured, drowned on Pandora 1791LoyalistOpen boat voyageDied in Batavia, 1789LoyalistOpen boat voyageDied in Batavia, 1789MutineerSettled TahitiCaptured, convicted, pardoned, died Royal navy service 1797MutineerSettled TahitiCaptured, convicted, executed (or "Byrn")Loyalist (detained)Settled TahitiCaptured, tried, acquittedMutineerSettled TahitiCaptured, convicted, executed (or "McKoy")MutineerSailed to PitcairnDied on Pitcairn, c. 1798 MutineerSailed to PitcairnMurdered on Pitcairn, 1793MutineerSettled TahitiCaptured, convicted, executedMutineerSailed to PitcairnMurdered on Pitcairn, 1799MutineerSettled TahitiCaptured, drowned on Pandora 1791 ("Alexander Smith")MutineerSailed to PitcairnDied on Pitcairn, 1829MutineerSettled TahitiCaptured, drowned on Pandora 1791MutineerSettled TahitiMurdered in Tahiti, c. 1790——Died on Bounty before mutiny 1788MutineerSailed to Pitcairn Murdered on Pitcairn, 1793LoyalistOpen boat voyageDied in Coupang, 1789MutineerSailed to PitcairnMurdered on Pitcairn, 1793
Michael Byrne Michael Byrne was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1761. He went to sea as an able seaman at the age of 19.Alexander, C. (2003), The Bounty: the True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty , p. 260 He had served on five naval ships by 1787, when he was signed as an able seaman by Captain Bligh on the Bounty, primarily to play the fiddle. Bligh wrote, "I had great difficulty before I left England to get a man to play the violin and I preferred at last to take one two-thirds blind than come without one," and described him as being "5 feet 6 inches high. Fair complexion and is almost blind. Plays the fiddle. Has the mark of an issue in the back of his neck."Log of Captain Bligh quoted in Alexander (2003) at p.84
During the mutiny on 28 April 1789, Byrne was notably the sole able seaman who was a loyalist, but he remained on the ship with the mutineers, apparently because his near-blindness added to his confusion.Alexander (2003), p.260 He was put ashore on Tahiti by Fletcher Christian. He gave himself up voluntarily when the Pandora arrived in 1791, and subsequently survived the wreck of the Pandora. He was acquitted of mutiny at court-martial in 1792.
He later served with Bligh's nephew, Francis Bond, on the Prompte;Alexander (2003), p.389 his subsequent fate is unknown.
Thomas Ellison Thomas Ellison (1772 – 29 October 1792) was an able seaman. After participating in the mutiny, he remained in Tahiti rather than continuing on to the Pitcairn Islands, and in 1791 voluntarily turned himself in to the seamen of HMS Pandora to face justice in England. He was court-martialed at Spithead in September 1792, sentenced to death, and hanged on 29 October. Questions continue as to the degree of Ellison's culpability in the mutiny.
Ellison, although he was only 15 years old when he was mustered aboard captain William Bligh's armed vessel Bounty as it sailed from Spithead for Tahiti, was already an experienced able seaman who had seen service in the merchant navy under Bligh in the West Indies. He was short () and was described as dark-haired and fair-skinned. In records of the outbound voyage, Bligh praised the lad as "improving" and "is a very good Boy and will do very well."Alexander, Caroline (2003), The Bounty: the True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty Bligh also instructed his clerk, John Samuel, to teach "Writing and Arithmetick" to the illiterate teenager.
During the Mutiny on the Bounty on 28 April 1789, Ellison was standing his watch as the ship's wheelsman, which gave him a vantage point to view the personal confrontation between Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian at the heart of the mutiny. Ellison described himself as continuing to obey the captain's orders to "clap the helm down". However, the young seaman then handed control of the helm to a mutineer, John Mills, and left the scene to ask for advice from a loyal crewman, Lawrence LeBogue. When the time came for Ellison to tell his story at his court-martial, he tried to portray this incident as an attempt to establish his loyalty; but LeBogue – who would within minutes be set adrift with Bligh in the ship's boat – was less than helpful or sympathetic to the confused youth:
He being wex'd, I believe, answerd me in a Sharp surly manner, told me to go to hell and not bother him; this Reception from my old ship mate quite Disheartened me from making an application to any One else.
He gave himself up voluntarily when HMS Pandora arrived in 1791, and was placed in irons as a mutineer. He subsequently survived the wreck of his prison ship, and was forwarded, still as a prisoner, to England for court-martial proceedings. Ellison faced his judges in September 1792.Alexander (2003) In his court-martial testimony, the loyal midshipman Thomas Hayward, who had also witnessed the mutiny, claimed to see young Ellison holding a bayonet and saying of Bligh, "Damn him, I will be sentry over him." Hayward also said he saw Ellison in a crowd of mutineers that were jeering their powerless ex-captain and "publicly insulting" him. John Hallett Claimed that Ellison remarked that Bligh would be put ashore and that he would be allowed back on ship.John Hallett Testimony Ellison in turn claimed that Hayward and Hallet were crying and lost control of themselves.Thomas Ellison statement In all the testimony only Haywood claimed that Ellison was a guard over Bligh and used insulting language; yet Bligh in his own narrative did not mention Ellison standing guard nor insulting him.Bligh narrative Unfortunely for Ellison three of the Loyal suriviors [Cole; Purcell, and Smith] recalled seeing him armed with a musket and bayonet.Cole TestimonyPurcell TestimonySmith Testimony Able seaman Ellison was seriously outranked by Hayward, who had been promoted to lieutenant, and had no means to hire counsel for his defence or to impeach this damning testimony. As a forlorn hope, the doomed man wrote out a paper for the Judge Advocate, pleading his case and describing the mutiny from his point of view. In this paper he concluded: