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The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander
5.0
THE BOUNTY: THE TRUE STORY OF THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY BY CAROLINE ALEXANDER: So I finally finished The Bounty which turned out to be a really great book about the mutiny on the Bounty, with Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh, and much mass. I actually prefer these types of history books that give you so much more information than you could ever expect, like Krakatoa by Simon Winchester. So it wasn't just a book about the mutiny on the Bounty, but also about the lives of each of the crew, where they were born, where they grew up, and how they came to be on this fated ship. A good portion of the book also went to Bligh's history and life. Then there was after the mutiny, with Bligh and his few faithful crew surviving (although gettting malaria in Batavia and essentially being stricken with it in minor form -- sometimes flaring up and putting them in death's reach -- for the rest of their lives) and making it back to England. And what happened to the mutineers and those that eventually got caught and court-martialed and what happened with their lives. And then what actually happened to the Bounty post-mutiny, which was what I was really interested in.
Turns out, the ship went back to Tahiti, kidnapped some of the pretty promiscuous women and then sailed for somewhere they wouldn't be found; because Fletcher Christian had Bligh's good maps, he settled on Pitcairn Island, which was hard to find and had only been discovered a short while before. They settled there with the women and were only able to survive because the women knew how to live off the island, but it got to the point where they started treating the women as slaves (as well as wives) along with some of the Tahitian men they kidnapped, and in retaliation the Tahitians fought back, supposedly murdering Christian and eventually everyone else except for one English guy, continuing to eke out their lives on Pitcairn Island, growing in fame and renown as more ships visited and discovered them. There's even the harrowing tale of one Tahitian woman who fought for her life to return to Tahiti and eventually did.
The last fifty pages or so of the book ends with how the surviving members of the mutiny lived their lives in England, and also Bligh's life which was continually doomed: on another ship he was involved in a sort of mutiny by the British navy, though what was really more of a strike to get more rights to the sailors, where he was involved in the negotiations from the British navy's side; and then he took the position of governor of New South Wales whereupon there was an almost immediate coup that had him having to stay on a boat for two years, with the overthrowers eventually getting captured and having another trial in England, and then his wife dying . . . it's a pretty sad tale. Thought there was one point in Bligh's life where he was captain of a ship alongside Lord Nelson and was involved in a great victory at the battle of Copenhagan, and for that got to hang out with Nelson for a while.
My complaint with the book, first and foremost, is the "tag line" on the cover of the paperback (not sure if it was on the hardcover): Has history been wrong for 200 years? Mayhap it has, but Caroline Alexander makes no mention of any startling research she's discovered or something new that the reader doesn't know, unless she assumes that we all already know everything there is to know about Captain Bligh and the Bounty, and can pick out her additions and discoveries, which is preposterous. Also Alexander tends to shift back and forth a lot and isn't very linear, starting the book off with the capture of the mutineers and then going on to the beginning of the sailors' lives and the eventual mutiny, and continuing to go back and forth in time at certain points, depending on which person she is dealing with.
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Turns out, the ship went back to Tahiti, kidnapped some of the pretty promiscuous women and then sailed for somewhere they wouldn't be found; because Fletcher Christian had Bligh's good maps, he settled on Pitcairn Island, which was hard to find and had only been discovered a short while before. They settled there with the women and were only able to survive because the women knew how to live off the island, but it got to the point where they started treating the women as slaves (as well as wives) along with some of the Tahitian men they kidnapped, and in retaliation the Tahitians fought back, supposedly murdering Christian and eventually everyone else except for one English guy, continuing to eke out their lives on Pitcairn Island, growing in fame and renown as more ships visited and discovered them. There's even the harrowing tale of one Tahitian woman who fought for her life to return to Tahiti and eventually did.
The last fifty pages or so of the book ends with how the surviving members of the mutiny lived their lives in England, and also Bligh's life which was continually doomed: on another ship he was involved in a sort of mutiny by the British navy, though what was really more of a strike to get more rights to the sailors, where he was involved in the negotiations from the British navy's side; and then he took the position of governor of New South Wales whereupon there was an almost immediate coup that had him having to stay on a boat for two years, with the overthrowers eventually getting captured and having another trial in England, and then his wife dying . . . it's a pretty sad tale. Thought there was one point in Bligh's life where he was captain of a ship alongside Lord Nelson and was involved in a great victory at the battle of Copenhagan, and for that got to hang out with Nelson for a while.
My complaint with the book, first and foremost, is the "tag line" on the cover of the paperback (not sure if it was on the hardcover): Has history been wrong for 200 years? Mayhap it has, but Caroline Alexander makes no mention of any startling research she's discovered or something new that the reader doesn't know, unless she assumes that we all already know everything there is to know about Captain Bligh and the Bounty, and can pick out her additions and discoveries, which is preposterous. Also Alexander tends to shift back and forth a lot and isn't very linear, starting the book off with the capture of the mutineers and then going on to the beginning of the sailors' lives and the eventual mutiny, and continuing to go back and forth in time at certain points, depending on which person she is dealing with.
Read the rest of the review at www.alexctelander.com
For more reviews, and writings, or to buy yourself a copy, please visit www.alexctelander.com.