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INTRODUCTION
To the
Bounty Bibliography
The real fun of the Bounty story is that the story is real. It is not a 'made up' children's story, even though it has all the elements of a wonderful fictional saga. The people and places of the Bounty are alive, and the romance, adventure, heroics and tragedy are very real. It is a wonderful adventure to live and re‑live today.
HMS Bounty set sail from Spithead, England on December 23, 1787 with 46 men bound for Tahiti. Their mission was to collect breadfruit plants to be transplanted in the West Indies. After collecting those plants, the Bounty was underway toward home, when, on the morning of April 28, 1789, Fletcher Christian and part of the crew mutinied, took over the ship, and set the Captain, William Bligh, and 18 members of the crew adrift in the ship’s 23-foot launch. The mutineers took the HMS Bounty to the isolated site at Pitcairn Island and, after a violent start and burning of the ship, established a settlement that still exists. The Captain sailed the launch and 17 of the crew 3618 miles back to civilization.
But these are the bare facts. There is much more to the story than that.
Thirty plus years ago I read the novel “Mutiny on the Bounty” by Norduff and Hall, and I was captivated. My initial interest became fascination with the characters, the places, and the drama. The questions of who did it and why are still alive today, and opinions abound.
I read, researched, and then compiled both a respectable library and then this list of all the literature I could find associated with HMS Bounty, William Bligh, and Pitcairn Island. I found and collected models, portraits, and movies to describe the story, in addition to the books and magazine articles. As a matter of interest, I have purposefully avoided the temptation to expand the collection to encompass all of British Maritime history or of Pacific Ocean geography. The attached Bibliography represents the best efforts of other interested people and myself to chronicle the whole Bounty story as it occurred, and as it has been reported and interpreted through the years. The saga is still alive and continuing today.
My course has been steered through the National Library of Congress and The National Geographic Society in Washington, D. C.; through the British Maritime Museum in London; booksellers and book stores throughout my travels; and to Bligh's grave at Lambeth Castle in London. The people who helped me have been as important to my adventure as the story itself; however, there are two experiences that stand above all the others in this wonderful Bounty adventure.
Mr. Luis Marden was the Senior Foreign Editor for the National Geographic, and in his younger days he went to Pitcairn Island, donned his diving gear and camera, and “Found the Bones of the Bounty”. (National Geographic Magazine, May 1957). I sent a note to him, explaining that, since he was greatly responsible for my interest in the Bounty, I should buy him lunch. He bought it at the National Geographic Society office building in Washington, D. C. and he held me in rapture for over three hours. He brought the people of Pitcairn to life with his warmth and care for them, and his first‑hand account of the island made the story very real. I knew greed and jealously when I coveted the cufflinks he wore, which were made from nails of the Bounty! The wonderful lunch with Luis Marden was one of those brief episodes of life that happily last forever.
The Tall Ship Bounty was built in 1960 as the real star of the 1962 movie version of “Mutiny on the Bounty”. For many years the ship has sailed the East Coast of the United States serving as a sail training ship and the center of attraction at many waterfront festivals. I sailed on the Tall Ship Bounty for a short week in and around the Chesapeake Bay, and the Captain and the ship brought me home to Norfolk, VA. I stayed in Fletcher Christian’s cabin, manned the helm, pulled a line, climbed the mast, ate with the crew, and had not one thought of mutiny. It was a dream come true. The experience made the whole Bounty adventure come alive.
I think it is fun to remember that in 1789 the Constitution of United States was ratified, the French Revolution occurred, and the mutiny onboard HMS Bounty happened in the remote South Seas. We may consider the mutiny as the spark of an epic saga, or an isolated incident in history.
As you venture deeper into the literature you may find that the source of the information becomes very important. Much of the literature is self-serving analysis to fit the author’s needs in their perspective of the story. As in all things, facts become entwined with feelings. Everyone is entitled to an opinion of the Bounty people and causes, and I have mine.
I don't think we would like William Bligh today. He would be too stiff and lack humor. He had a caustic manner of speaking. But I think we would very much respect his values, integrity, hard work ethic, and his skills. The irony of his current place in history is that he was well ahead of his time in his desire to take care of his crew. He took great pride in their well‑being, and he was lenient in making the punishment fit the crime.
I think Tahiti was a lure and a tempestuous siren. The right combination of disgruntled people in one ship’s watch were willing to sacrifice their honor for romance. It was a “spur of the moment” event.
If we are to look for a lesson, it is probably that there are ongoing and continuing consequences for the actions we take in our life.
So, the story continues to be alive. Yet to go for me may be: a trip to the Mitchell Library in
Sydney, Australia, which is home to many of the original manuscripts identified in this Bibliography; a trip to Tahiti and Pitcairn by boat rather than by dream; and more adventures in sorting out the differences of opinion that exist as to the causes of the mutiny.
I have been blessed with many rich adventures associated with the Bounty saga. If I find that this little list charts a course for other people to share in the adventure of the Bounty, then I will have been doubly blessed.
Good Adventures to You.
H.L. “Butch” Kerr
Mr. Kerr was a junior officer in the U. S. Navy riding on a small boat in the South China Sea when he first heard the story of HMS Bounty. The storyteller must have been a master because Mr. Kerr's imagination was captured. Later, after reading the first novel about the Bounty mutiny, Mr. Kerr launched a thirty-year adventure of reading and collecting, and then compiling this Bibliography of the Bounty. Mr. Kerr later retired from the U. S. Navy, and now resides in Norfolk, VA.