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Samuel's family seems likely to have been involved as ship's outfitters, which led to his career as a Naval clerk. He appears to have been a serious, somewhat humorless person, very dedicated to his profession as ship's clerk and bookkeeper. Bligh considered him incompetant early in the voyage but later came to value him as one of his most loyal supporters. His was one of the cabins placed under immediate guard at the start of the mutiny. He was one of the first to be ordered into the Launch by Christian, preceded only by Hayward and Hallett.

But all was not always necessarily rosy between Bligh and Samuel. When the cheese rations were found to be short, Hillbrant, the talkative cooper had blurted out that he had seen Samuel, the clerk, take the cheeses from the barrels and, when questioned by Hillbrant, Samuel stated that he had been ordered by Bligh to take the cheeses to Bligh's home. I sincerely doubt that Hillbrant was trying to make Bligh angry when Bligh started ranting about the loss. I think that he was honestly (if naively) trying to remind the Captain of the circumstances that he saw. Bligh's response to him, threatening him if he should ever say that again, has been taken by Bligh as tacit admission of taking the cheeses, but does it seem rational that Bligh would take the risk of stealing ship's provisions from his own ship? He was well-off, and as a commander, he knew that short provisions would be the most likely source of trouble in mid-voyage. Could Bligh's response, alternatively, have been a reaction to Hillbrant's disclosure of Samuel's actions, which might well have been unauthorized ... was it to Samuel's home the cheeses were bound?? Samuel was, even by that early point, a lap-dog to the commander. Could Bligh have been reacting to just finding out that his pet clerk not only stole something, but blamed him in the process. He wouldn't likely have said anything to Samuel then, but I wonder what was said in private a bit later!

During the mutiny, it was Samuel who carefully retrieved Bligh's journals, commission, and important ship's papers, without which Bligh would have been hard-pressed to prove his allegations in later trials. Samuel, with John Smith's assistance, also retrieved Blighs uniforms and some other clothes. He then attempted to take Bligh's original surveys, maps, and drawings, and the timekeeper, but the mutineers who were closely watching him pushed him out of the cabin with 'Damn your eyes, you are well off to get what you have!'.

During the voyage of the Launch, he strongly sided with Bligh in the disputes with Fryer. He was one of the three crewmembers who put ashore on 1 Jun 1789 at the southernmost of what Capt. Cook called the 'Bird Islands' to try to capture food, and during which search Lamb set the flock to flight.

He returned to England with Bligh on the 'Vlydte', arriving at Portsmouth Harbour on 14 Mar 1790. He did not testify at the trial, likely due to his absence from England during that period. He continued in his naval career, and reached the position of Naval Paymaster.