11. The 42nd President of the United States was named after him.
Six year old cabin boy.
Figures.
The reality was almost the opposite. While Bligh was a gruff, unfriendly, and arrogant man, he was not cruel. In fact, he would usually just yell at crew members for offenses that other captains would flog for, and would flog for offenses that other captains would hang crew for (such as desertion). People also forget that most of the sailors aboard the ship were conscripted - often given the choice between serving a jail sentence for petty crime vs. working on a ship. He had to maintain order with a crew of rabble somehow.
Also, Fletcher Christian wasn't an idealistic humanitarian hero. He was a spoiled and moody man who decided that he preferred lounging around a tropical island with native girls to work, and conspired to convince a rabble crew to do the same. In contrast, Bligh's actions on the life boat were nothing short of heroic: he managed to keep every man alive and navigate his way from Tahiti to the Australian coast with next to no tools.
The longboat voyage after the mutiny was an incredible feat of navigation and endurance. Every time they would try and go ashore, natives would attack - chasing them in war canoes with spears splashing all around. Bligh at the tiller simply said, “Row for your lives, men” - and they did.
Bligh’s navigation skills were excellent while sailing that small boat after the mutiny and all his time as an officer. He updated Royal Navy charts as to locations and water hazards with his accurate surveys. The time ashore collecting the breadfruit out of ship’s discipline ruined his crew more than any lapse or act by Bligh. The Navy kept him on after the mutiny but he never got much in the way of promotions from then on.
Just read “Men Against the Sea”, Nordhoff & Hall’s wonderful novel about Bligh’s open-sea sail from Tahiti to Timor. What a guy.
The fact that the mutiny occurred at all was a big black mark for Bligh regardless of the cause. But he was by no means the worst Captain around by a long shot. Many Captains were sadistic bullies. Why do you think so many Brit sailors jumped ship and signed on to the US Navy?
What wasn’t mentioned is that Bligh had a second mutiny when he was the Governor of New South Wales. One mutiny could be explained away, but with two to his name, I think there was something wrong with Bligh.
One of the greatest feats of seamanship in history.
So, he was only 35 at the time of the mutiny.
Hollywood has him as a middle aged man or older................
Oh, boy! Another list! Woo hoo!
Bligh Island and Reef in Alaska are named after William Bligh.
The reef was the location of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.