BLIGH, William

A Narrative of the Mutiny, on board His Majesty's Ship Bounty...

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George Nicol, London, 1790. Quarto, with a frontispiece plan and three charts; plan of the Bounty'slaunch unevenly cropped at extreme margins with some loss to ruled border only at top and bottom; the large folding plate of the Track of the Bounty's Launch with small paper repair; signs of adhesion affecting final two leaves of text; generally a clean copy in period-style quarter red morocco over marbled boards. First edition of Bligh's own account of the Bounty mutiny, the most notorious incident in maritime history; publication of this predated Bligh's full account of the voyage by two years. He was anxious to have an account of the mutiny itself available to safeguard his own reputation and in order to present copies to the Lords of the Admiralty before the court-martial of the mutineers, to absolve himself from blame.

The Bounty voyage had been commissioned by the Admiralty, on the instructions of George III, to collect breadfruit plants - 'the Merchants and Planters interested in His Majesty's West India Possessions have represented that the Introduction of the Bread Fruit Trees into the Islands in those Seas to constitute an Article of Food would be a very essential Benefit to the Inhabitants ...'. It was probably at least in part the lure of the Pacific islands to which the plants were to be delivered that sparked off the mutiny that took place on 28 April 1789, which resulted in Bligh and eighteen others being cast adrift in an open boat - certainly the most infamous mutiny in maritime history.

Although the mutiny and its ramifications would haunt Bligh always, his reputation was forever redeemed by the epic open-boat journey across four thousand miles of the Pacific with eighteen loyal crewmen adrift in their 23-foot launch. In the course of this hazardous journey Bligh charted and named parts of the unknown northeast coast of New Holland (present-day Queensland) as he passed along it - an extraordinary feat of seamanship. The volume includes a chart of his discoveries on the northeast coast and Torres Strait, which in fact represented the most extensive work of coastal discovery undertaken in the first few years of Australian settlement.
Hill, p. 26; Kroepelien, 87; O'Reilly-Reitman, 543; Wantrup, 61.

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