Flogging Of Midshipmen

BLIGH WAS THE REAL HERO OF BOUNTY MUTINY

By contrast, dashing screen legends Clark Gable and Marlon Brando gave mutineer Fletcher Christian a glamorous image as the fearless seaman with the guts to stand up to the bullying tormentor at the helm.

The portrayals of Bligh by Trevor Howard and Charles Laughton projected a harsh and uncompromising taskmaster.

Now, however, his great-great-great-grandson Maurice Bligh, a 68-year-old inventor, has had enough of the “lies and distortions” and is researching a book to clear the name of his relative.

He hopes Hollywood producers will snap it up and produce an epic revealing that Bligh was the unwarranted victim of drunken and murderous piracy.

“My ancestor should be seen as the hero of the great 18th century story and not the villain,” said Maurice, of Sittingbourne, Kent, where he used to publish antiquarian books.

He plans to visit the South Seas island of Pitcairn to meet Tom Christian, the great-great-great-grandson of Fletcher Christian.

The men have become good friends and want a more accurate portrayal of the maritime drama that has transfixed cinema-goers for decades. In the 1962 film Trevor Howard played Bligh against Brando’s Fletcher Christian. In 1984 Mel Gibson was Christian and Anthony Hopkins played Bligh. Maurice wants actors of a similar stature to star in his version of events.

Born in Cornwall in 1754, William Bligh did not, as many books claim, work on seagoing boats from the age of seven but joined the Royal Navy at 16 after a solid education amid a warm, loving family environment.

He quickly rose from midshipman to lieutenant and became Captain Cook’s right-hand-man on merchant ships. Bligh was a captain at 29 and took Fletcher Christian on several trips to the West Indies. When Bligh’s wife’s uncle bought merchant vessel the Bounty, he sold it to the Navy which wanted to use it to take breadfruit trees from the South Seas to help alleviate starvation in the West Indies.

After a 10-month voyage, the Bounty arrived in Tahiti and only one man had been lost to disease. No one was flogged to death, as has been suggested. Records show floggings were far less frequent than on other vessels.

While waiting for the breadfruit saplings to grow, Bligh turned a blind eye to the womanising and drinking of his crew, who spent five months relaxing and enjoying themselves.

Amazing Grace

It was written by John Newton. John Newton was born in London July 24, 1725, the son of a commander of a merchant ship which sailed the Mediterranean. When John was eleven, he went to sea with his father and made six voyages with him before the elder Newton retired. In 1744 John was impressed into service on a man-of-war, the H. M. S. Harwich. Finding conditions on board intolerable, he deserted but was soon recaptured and publicly flogged and demoted from midshipman to common seaman.

Finally at his own request he was exchanged into service on a slave ship, which took him to the coast of Sierra Leone. He then became the servant of a slave trader and was brutally abused. Early in 1748 he was rescued by a sea captain who had known John’s father. John Newton ultimately became captain of his own ship, one which plied the slave trade.

Although he had had some early religious instruction from his mother, who had died when he was a child, he had long since given up any religious convictions. However, on a homeward voyage, while he was attempting to steer the ship through a violent storm, he experienced what he was to refer to later as his “great deliverance.” He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him.

For the rest of his life he observed the anniversary of May 10, 1748 as the day of his conversion, a day of humiliation in which he subjected his will to a higher power. “Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’tis grace has bro’t me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” He continued in the slave trade for a time after his conversion; however, he saw to it that the slaves under his care were treated humanely.

This powerful song has influenced many through the years. Including myself.

Grace to me is God, an all knowing being DESIRES to be in a relationship with me, even though he knows all my darkest secrets, and my insecurities, and failures.

This is grace. Amazing Grace.