Search -
Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare: From the Bounty to Safety - 4,162 Miles Across the Pacific in a Rowing Boat
Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare From the Bounty to Safety 4162 Miles Across the Pacific in a Rowing Boat Author:John Toohey At dawn on 28 April 1789, Captain William Bligh and eighteen men from HMS Bounty were herded on to a 23-foot launch and abandoned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Thus began their extraordinary journey to Java. Covering 4,162 miles, the small boat was battered by continuous storms and the men on board suffered crippling illness, near starvati... more »on and attacks by islanders. The journey was one of the greatest achievements in the history of European seafaring and a personal triumph for a man who has been misjudged by history.
Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare reveals Bligh's great map-making skills, used to particular effect while exploring with Captain Cook. We discover his guilt over Cook's death in Kealakekua Bay. We learn of the failure of the Bounty expedition and the myths that surround it, the trials and retributions that followed Bligh's return to England, his successes as a navigator and as a vice-admiral fighting next to Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen.
Combining extensive research with dazzling storeytelling, John Toohey tells a gripping tale of seafaring, exploration and mutiny on the high seas while also dismissing the black legend of the cruel and foul-mouthed Captain William Bligh, and reinstating him not just as a man of his times, but as a British hero.« less