William Bligh's account of the Bounty mutiny
Read William Bligh's first-person account of the Bounty mutiny, the failed breadfruit expedition and the open-boat journey that followed.
Last updated September 2026
Contents6
William Bligh's A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board His Majesty's Ship Bounty tells one part of a longer trip. It covers the breadfruit mission and the boat trip after the mutiny. Bligh says in his own note that the book starts with the failed mission and what came next. It is his account, not the story of every sailor on board.
Image note: This photo shows old books, not Bligh's book or the Bounty. The Met attributes the 1870s or 1880s photo to William Notman, marked Public Domain/Open Access.
The breadfruit mission
The Bounty was sent to carry breadfruit from the South Sea Islands to the West Indies. Bligh says the ship left Otaheite in April 1789 with more than a thousand plants. This shows why the ship was in the Pacific and what Bligh had been sent to do.
The mutiny and the open boat
Bligh says the mutineers took him before dawn, threatened him, then put him in the ship's launch with other crew members. His story follows their search for food, water, and a safe way to land. The danger came from a small boat, few supplies, weather, and a long trip.
Read Bligh as one participant
The title page calls this Bligh's account. It is still one man's view. This page does not treat his claims about each mutineer as a full account of why they rebelled. It also keeps his words apart from later tales.
Where to read Bligh's narrative
Project Gutenberg gives the full English text as eBook 20337. Its record names Bligh and says the text is public domain in the U.S. Its note asks readers elsewhere to check local law.
Compare the argument with the experience
Bligh tells events from his own position in a voyage. Mahan's argument about sea power works at the scale of fleets, commerce and campaigns. Reading them together helps distinguish a participant's narrative from a historian's explanation.
Verdict
Read Bligh for a sailor's first account of the Bounty mutiny and the trip in the small boat that followed. The book tells of the failed breadfruit mission and the events after the mutiny. It is Bligh's view of what took place.