ABSTRACT
In late September 1808 the American ship Topaz was sailing the empty expanses of the South Pacific ocean. She had come from her home port of Boston, Massachusetts down the east coast of the Americas, had rounded Cape Horn, was some halfway between South America and New Zealand and was just entering tropical latitudes when land was sighted. As the Topaz closed with the island at daylight the surf was too dangerous to risk landing in a ship's boat but, in spite of the danger, a canoe put out from a small bay. The mutiny on the Bounty had reverberated around the world ever since it had taken place on 28 April 1789. It was a British cause célèbre from the time that the news was received, and was an event soon known throughout Europe and in English-speaking countries and territories overseas: through numerous publications, the cinema and television it has remained a story known throughout the world.
