Mutiny on the Bounty

The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order.

Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect bread-fruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise and did not want to leave. Under the leadership of Fletcher Christian most of the crew mutinied, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 loyal crewmen adrift in a small open boat. In one of history's greatest feats of seamanship, Bligh sailed this tiny vessel for 3618 nautical miles to Timor.

Fletcher Christian and the mutineers sailed back to Tahiti, where most remained and were later tried for mutiny. But Christian, along with eight fellow mutineers and some Tahitian men and women, sailed off into the unknown, eventually landing on isolated Pitcairn Island - at the time not even marked on British maps.

The mutineers' descendants live on Pitcairn to this day, amid swirling stories and rumours of past sexual transgressions and present-day repercussions. Mutiny on the Bounty is a sprawling, dramatic tale of intrigue, bravery and sheer boldness, told with the accuracy of historical detail and total command of story that are Peter FitzSimons' trademarks.