William Bligh of The Bounty Tomb (c.2019) by UnkknownGarden Museum
Captain Bligh was buried at St Mary-at-Lambeth, now the Garden Museum on 15th December 1817. The tomb had been built for his wife, Betsy, and the two of their children who had died in infancy.
William Bligh (c.1776) by John Webber (attributed)National Portrait Gallery
At the age of twenty-two William Bligh sailed to the Pacific as Sailing Master of Resolution on Captain James Cook’s last voyage.
Portrait of Captain James Cook RN Portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.National Portrait Gallery
Sir Joseph Banks, the founder of the Botanic Gardens at Kew, became intrigued by the breadfruit tree when he sailed with Captain Cook to Tahiti in 1769.
Bot Exot Breadfruit Euphorbia AloesLIFE Photo Collection
The Breadfruit tree has fruit for seven months of the year and could be stored and dried. Banks believed it was a ‘miracle food’ for the slaves in British colonies of the West Indies.
Joseph Banks Esq (1774) by Sir Joshua Reynolds and W Dickinson (engraver)National Portrait Gallery
The Bounty was fitted-out at Deptford under the instructions of Banks for the transportation of the breadfruit.
Sir Joseph Banks recommended William Bligh to undertake the journey and on 23 September 1787 the Bounty sailed from Spithead and eventually arrived in Otaheite,(Tahiti) 26 October 1788 after a logged journey of 27,086 miles.
Bot Exot Breadfruit Euphorbia AloesLIFE Photo Collection
It remained in Tahiti for five months as Bligh and two gardeners nurtured a thousand cuttings. On 31 March 1789 the breadfruit plants were gathered on board ‘being in seven hundred and seventy-four pots, thirty-nine tubs, and twenty-four boxes’ and they set sail at sunset on 4 April.
Mutiny on the Bounty (The Mutineers turning Lieutenant Bligh and part of the officers and crew adrift from His Majesty's Ship the Bounty) (1790) by Robert DoddNational Portrait Gallery
The Bounty was seized by Fletcher Christian and some crew members on 28 April 1789. Bligh with 18 others was cast adrift in the ship’s launch.
The provisions they were permitted to collect being ‘twine, canvas, lines, sails, cordage, an eight-and-twenty gallon cast of water, 150 pounds of bread, a small quantity of rum and wine, also a quadrant and compass’ but he was ‘forbidden to touch either map, ephemeris, book of astronomical observations, timekeeper, or any of my surveys or drawings’.
LIFE Photo Collection
Also retrieved were Bligh’s journals, a carpenter’s chest and 4 cutlasses, some pieces of pork and clothes were thrown into the launch by the mutineers.
Bligh and his loyal sailors rowed over 4,000 miles to safety, and the mutineers made a new home on Pitcairn Island.
Captain Bligh Receiving the Bread-Fruit Trees in Tahiti (1796-09-01) by Thomas GosseGarden Museum
Bligh was exonerated for any wrongdoing at the naval inquiry into the mutiny, and in 1793 returned to Tahiti and in a second epic voyage reached Jamaica with 1,281 breadfruit plants. He is also credited with having brought some 500 plant species to the UK, mostly at the behest of Sir Joseph Banks of Kew Gardens.
Whilst breadfruit may have first arrived in Jamaica as a contribution to the abhorrent practice of keeping people as slaves it has since become an important part of Jamaican cuisine. It is delicious boiled, baked, fried, steamed and mashed. With its high yield of nutritious fruit and low maintenance it is being explored for its ability to assist in solving challenges in food production due to climate change.
William Bligh of The Bounty Tomb (c.2019) by UnkknownGarden Museum
Captain Bligh of was buried at St Marys Church, Lambeth now the Garden Museum on 15th December 1817. The tomb had been built for his wife, Betsy, and the two of their eight children who had died in infancy.
The ornament on top is an eternal flame, and not a breadfruit, but the epitaph tells us that Bligh’s greatest achievement was the transplantation of the breadfruit from Tahiti to Jamaica.
Nandina domestica and Bligh tombGarden Museum
By the time of Bligh’s death the children of the mutineers had been discovered on Pitcairn, and Fletcher Christian had become a hero for the Romantic Age.
