Ian Ball (3)

Captain Bligh, in the 1935 movie Mutiny on the Bount is the paragon of evil. He is temperamental, unprincipled and downright vicious. Is that really what happened? The first half of the book was thrilling and moved well. It tells an uncommonly different story from the 1935 movie, one where Captain Bligh went to the lengths of hiring a live entertainer for the ship and took uncommon steps to ensure the crew's well-being. After an idyllic period in Tahiti, the crew members were uprooted from their "pleasures of the harbor" and tossed back into a month-long trip with a ship full of breadfruit for transplant to Jamaica. Not fun. And the utopia they hoped to create on Pitcairn was hardly bucolic. Utopian schemes often end disastrously. This one was not a disaster; it was not a great outcome either.

The second half, detailing the post-mutiny island life, is more sociology than history, which is not my favorite subject. It goes into detail, sometimes excruciating, about the boredom and monotony of life on Pitcairn Island, where many of the mutineers settled. The Seven Day Adventists largely took over and stabilized life on Pitcairn, maybe too much. The population had dwindled to 85 by the time of his 1972 visit, and according to a Google search I did while reading, to around 50 now. Let's just say Pitcairn, despite its idyllic location just below the Tropic of Capricorn, is no Gilligan's Island. The languid pace of life has diminished the initiative and to an extent even the intelligence of the people, according to the book's author.

I picked this book out at random in the library, when I stopped in on an impulse. They say you can't tell a book by its cover. This cover intrigued me and it was worth the read, despite a bit of a slog at the end. If you're interested in the subject, go to a thread I OP'd on a discussion board, Mutiny on the Bounty - Was Captain Bligh a Symbol of Evil or Good Ship Captain?

picked this book out at random in the library, when I stopped in on an impulse. They say you can't tell a book by its cover. This cover intrigued me and it was worth the read, despite a bit of a slog at the end. If you're interested in the subject, go to a thread I OP'd on a discussion board, Mutiny on the Bounty - Was Captain Bligh a Symbol of Evil or Good Ship Captain? https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.city-data.com/forum/history/3299300-m...… (more)