Yes that’s true. The movie ‘Bounty’ with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins does a much better job of depicting the truth of what happened on the Bounty than earlier movies, which portrayed Bligh as an almost cartoonishly evil villain.
Bligh was enlightened for his day and frowned upon corporal punishment. He prided himself in keeping crew deaths to a minimum and was ahead of his time in instituting innovations to improve the health of the crew. Towards that end he focused on diet and providing fruits and vegetables to his crew - this at a time when good nutrition was not very well understood. He also believed physical activity was necessary for good mental and physical health which is why he had the men dance on a regular basis - aerobics would be a more accurate term but the term wasn’t around then, even making sure to have a musician for this purpose on his voyages.
As you mentioned his navigation in the open boat was an amazing feat. And it’s true, one could fault him for having a a short fuse and a sharp tongue, but compared to your typical British Captain of the day, he was probably no worse in that regard than most of his peers.
All in all he appears to have handled himself on that infamous journey, honorably and showed great leadership and courage in returning those crew members who remained loyal to him, to safety. But he lost the PR war.
“All in all he appears to have handled himself on that infamous journey, honorably and showed great leadership and courage in returning those crew members who remained loyal to him, to safety. But he lost the PR war.”
I read a book called “Pirate Hunter - the true story of Captain Kidd.” Lots of research, etc. I forget the entire story, but he was hired by the English to go after pirate ships. But he wasn’t having any luck. Finally his crew came upon a British ship that was flying the flag of a country that was fair game. (Often done as a ruse.)
Even though the ship was English, Kidd was legally allowed to blunder it as it was flying under a enemy flag. And with his crew upset over the lack of luck they took the cargo and the ship. Kidd released the officers and seamen that wanted to leave.
After that they were disowned by the English King and others that had commissioned him. I don’t recall if they ever attacked another ship. Mostly being chased iirc. The blunder was textiles from India, and was probably rotted out by the time they were able to get to a safe port iirc!
His imprisonment and “trial” at the end of the book was terrifying at the lack of justice. Guilty until proven innocent, and his court-provided lawyer was not going to show the documents signed by the King commissioning him in the first place!