ABSTRACT
On 4 April 1789 the crew of the Bounty took leave of the Tahitians who had been their generous hosts, friends and lovers, and sailed for the West Indies to deliver their precious cargo of breadfruit trees on the way to home. Accordingly Bligh set course for the misnamed Friendly Islands 1 800 miles from Tahiti where he intended to take aboard water and fresh food. Bligh had always been abusive and foul-mouthed to his officers and had been obliged on the outward voyage to have a public reading of the Articles of War to enforce his authority on the ship's master and was an isolated and unpopular figure with all on board. Pitcairn is isolated lying on the outer edge of island clusters southwest of Tahiti in the South Pacific ocean roughly halfway between South America and Australia, and close to the line of the Tropic of Capricorn.
