ABSTRACT
John Adams was the only one to live long enough to learn the fate of those who were cast adrift with Captain Bligh as well as those who chose to stay at Tahiti. On Tuesday 28 April 1789 Captain Bligh and his men were cast adrift. They were close to the island of Tofua and made there to collect water and to trade with the natives for supplies. But the natives soon realised that they had no muskets and were weak enough to be taken. In the Dutch East Indies four men – Hall, Elphinstone, Linkletter and Nelson – died of fevers. Bligh, it should be noted, far from seeing to the well-being of his men, secured a passage on the first available ship for himself, leaving his men to fend for themselves. The survivors were faced with reaching the Dutch East Indies, having to cover about half the distance Bligh covered in his epic small-boat voyage.
