ABSTRACT
On the morning of 28 April 1789 in the South Pacific, William Bligh of HMS Bounty was woken by his Master at Arms and recently-promoted Acting Lieutenant, Fletcher Christian. These two ranking members of the ship’s crew proceeded to bind Bligh’s hands with cord and threaten him with death should he make a sound. With the aid of two more crew, Bligh was carried on deck: he found ‘no man to rescue me’. In his reconstruction of the event in his A Voyage to the South Sea, Bligh remembered the scene:
The boatswain and seamen who were to go in the boat were allowed to collect twine, canvass, lines, sails, cordage, an eight-and-twenty gallon cask of water; and Mr. Samuel got one hundred and fifty pounds of bread, with a small quantity of rum and wine, also a quadrant and compass; was forbidden, on pain of death, to touch either map, ephemeris, book of astronomical observations, sextant, time-keeper or any of my surveys or drawings … (Mr. Samuel) attempted to save the time-keeper, and a box with my surveys, drawings, and remarks for fifteen years past, which were numerous; when he was hurried away, with “Damn your eyes you are well off to get what you have”. 1
The time-keeper in question, known now as ‘K2’, had been supplied for the voyage by the Board of Longitude. K2 had been bought by the Board from the watchmaker Larcum Kendall in 1772, its second commission to Kendall. The task was to make a less expensive version of Kendall’s ‘K1’ – Kendall’s replica of John Harrison’s much-celebrated timekeeper now known as ‘H4’ – although K2 was still expensive, costing the Board £200. 2