Fletcher Christian earned himself a footnote in
history as the leader of the Mutiny on the Bounty and also as the “father of
his nation”, if the word “nation” is appropriate for the remote and tiny
community that continues to this day on Pitcairn Island in the Pacific Ocean.
Early Life
He was born on 25th September 1764 in
Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was the seventh of ten children born to a
well-to-do merchant and his wife.
After receiving a good education Fletcher Christian
enrolled as a midshipman in the Royal Navy in 1783. He sailed to India on board
the “Eurydice”, returning in 1785 having been promoted to acting lieutenant.
In 1786-7 he sailed twice to the West Indies under
the command of Captain William Bligh. The two men became good friends, and Christian
was therefore very willing to serve as master’s mate to Bligh when the latter
took charge of HMS Bounty in December 1787 on a voyage to Tahiti to collect
breadfruit plants. Bligh was later to remind Christian that they had been on
excellent terms at one time and that Christian had played with Bligh’s children
while enjoying his hospitality.
The Mutiny
There has been much debate about the causes of the
mutiny, depending on whose testimony one chooses to trust. It does, however,
appear that William Bligh was inconsistent in his behaviour and lacked “man
management” skills. There is some evidence to suggest that Bligh had a habit of
blaming others for any setback that was encountered and that he was
over-critical of the officers on board, including Fletcher Christian.
When the ship reached Tahiti, Christian allied
himself with a group of sailors who had become increasingly dissatisfied with
life on board ship. They had been well received by the local Tahitians,
especially the women, and a number of them were much keener on staying put than
on continuing their voyage.
The mutiny took place on 28th April 1789.
Fletcher Christian was in charge of the group of sailors who overpowered
Captain Bligh and set him and 18 loyal officers and crew adrift in a ship’s
boat.
It is not known whether Fletcher Christian expected
Captain Bligh to survive, although he did so only due to a remarkable feat of
seamanship and considerable good luck, but the mutineers knew that, whatever
Bligh’s fate, they were now criminals who could expect no mercy if they were
ever caught.
After the Mutiny
Their first thought was to sail back to Tahiti,
where some of the mutineers expected the same welcome they had had before. They
looked forward to settling down with Tahitian wives and spending the rest of
their lives there.
However, the Tahitian king was horrified at what had
happened and had no intention of providing a refuge to the mutineers. He knew
full well what his own fate would be if the Royal Navy came looking for HMS
Bounty, which was quite likely to happen.
Although some of the mutineers did settle on Tahiti,
Christian and the core mutineers, together with their new wives, set sail again
in full knowledge that their survival depended on finding somewhere that was so
remote that they stood very little chance of ever being found.
That place was the Pitcairn Island group. These four
widely spaced islands are more than three hundred miles from anywhere else that
is populated (the Gambier Islands) and more than three thousand miles from both
New Zealand to the west and South America to the east.
Once the mutineers had settled here they were safe
enough from discovery. They arrived in 1790 and did not spot another ship for
five years. It was not until 1808 that the islanders would see another human
being other than themselves. However, by that time the Pitcairn community was
very different from how it had been originally.
One of the first acts of the mutineers, led by
Fletcher Christian, was to burn HMS Bounty, thus ensuring that none of them
would ever leave the island. With no escape from their new prison – Pitcairn,
the only inhabited island, is just over two miles across – they had to create a
new society from scratch and find ways to stay alive.
In some ways they were successful, given that there
is still a small community of descendants on Pitcairn to this day, but they
soon gave way to infighting that led to murder and mayhem. By 1801 only one of
the original mutineers, John Adams, was still alive. Fletcher Christian probably
died violently in about 1793, but there is no certainty about this.
Assessing Fletcher Christian’s Character
There have been various accounts of Fletcher
Christian’s nature and character, some of them being diametrically opposed to
others! Some people who knew him described him as a kind, cheerful man, whereas
he was also described as being morose and a tyrannical bully. Given the closed
and remote location in which he lived his last days it is impossible to know
the truth.
One can imagine that, on reflection, Fletcher
Christian must have had mixed feelings about how things turned out. Leading the
mutiny probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but did he really think
through all the consequences? It seems unlikely that he could have done so, unless
he actually believed that he could get away with defying the Royal Navy in such
a way. If that is so, one has to wonder whether his mental state was all it
might have been.
© John Welford
No comments:
Post a Comment