The day the mutiny on Bounty started – level 3

28-04-1789

In December 1787, the British ship Bounty left England and sailed for Tahiti. The ship was commanded by an experienced captain. His name was William Bligh.

In Tahiti, the sailors had a lot of food, rest, and were happy with Tahitian women around them. The crew spent 5 months there. Then they loaded as many breadfruit plants on the boat as possible and set out for Jamaica.

The return to hard work at sea and limited food was difficult. Some men started to get very upset. On April 28, 1789, after three weeks of sailing, the angry men decided to arm themselves, and during the night they took control of the ship.

By doing this, the crew split into two halves. The mutineers put Captain Bligh and the 18 men who remained loyal to him in a boat, leaving them to their fate in the middle of the ocean.

Bligh and his men sailed in a small boat across the ocean for many days. After six weeks, they reached the Dutch island of Timor where Bligh reported a mutiny on Bounty.

The mutineers returned to Tahiti, where some of them stayed, and the rest continued their voyage to a small uninhabited Pitcairn Island where there were drinking water and fertile soil. They had several Tahitian women on board. After landing, they burned their ship.

Descendants of these mutineers and Tahitian women still live on Pitcairn Island.

Difficult words: breadfruit (a big tropical fruit), set out (to start), arm (to take weapons), mutineer (a person who is active in a mutiny), voyage (a long journey), uninhabited (when nobody lives there), fertile (able to produce good vegetables such as corn), descendant (a person who is related to somebody who lived a long time ago).

What factors contributed to the crew's dissatisfaction with their living and working conditions on board the Bounty?

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