AWAKE, BOLD BLIGH! William Bligh's letters describing the mutiny on HMS Bounty. Edited, with an introduction by Paul Brunton - a photograph.ISBN 0 04 442123 0

AWAKE, BOLD BLIGH!

William Bligh's letters describing the mutiny on HMS Bounty
Edited, with an introduction by Paul Brunton

1st. 1989 by Allen Unwin Pty Ltd. in association with the State Library of New South Wales, Australia.

An olive cloth bound book with gilt lettering to the spine - very little shelf and handling wear - previous owner's dedication top front free end paper and signed by author/editor on title page - VERY GOOD PLUS condition. In a VERY GOOD PLUS unclipped dust wrapper. Contents immaculate on shiny paper.220mm. x 290mm.
86 high quality pages.

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AWAKE, BOLD BLIGH! William Bligh's letters describing the mutiny on HMS Bounty. Edited, with an introduction by Paul Brunton – an icon adapted from the jacket front to represent this book on my site and here used as a link to larger images.

Cover blurbs

`Know then my own Dear Betsy, I have lost the Bounty.' With these words begins the first private account of an event which became a legend. The mutiny which erupted on 28 April 1789 on board HMS Bounty, under the command of Lieutenant William Bligh RN, is the most celebrated and notorious of all maritime mutinies and the subject of countless books and five feature films.

The three letters here published together in facsimile for the first time were written by Bligh while recovering from the voyage in an open boat from Tahiti to Timor. They are his personal accounts, written for private reading by his family and friends.

The first is written to Bligh's wife Elizabeth, his 'Dear Dear Betsy'. The second is addressed to Duncan Campbell, his wife's uncle, once Bligh's employer. The third is written to Bligh's patron, Sir Joseph Banks, a towering figure in the British exploration of the Pacific. Together, these letters and their enclosures bring the mutiny to life in a way unmatched by accounts written many years after the event or the fanciful histrionics of the films. Here is Bligh the dispossessed commander, the survivor of an extraordinary feat of seamanship, recounting the drama soon after it happened, with his characteristic directness. With an explanatory text and transcriptions they present, lucidly and purposefully, the events at the heart of the Bounty legend as experienced by the man at the centre of the action.

The Letters

The letter to Elizabeth was acquired from Bligh's great grand-daughter, Mrs Alice Rose Oakes, nee Bligh, as part of a collection of Bligh's papers received during December 1923 and January 1924. The letter and enclosure to Duncan Campbell was part of David Scott Mitchell's bequest which formed the nucleus of the Mitchell Library. The letter and enclosure to Sir Joseph Banks was purchased by the NSW Government in 1884 and was placed in the Mitchell Library when it opened in 1910.

Paul Brunton is Manuscripts Librarian at the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. He has worked with the Australian manuscripts collection there since 1973 and has published on the management of archives and manuscripts and on various aspects of the Library's collection. He was a joint editor and contributor to the prize winning manual Keeping Archives published in 1987.

CONTENTS

Foreword
Acknowledgements

  1. The events of the mutiny on HMS Bounty
  2. A biography of William Bligh
  3. The Bounty legend
  4. Description of the letters
  5. Transcription of the letters
  6. Facsimile of the letters

Description of the mutineers
Further Reading

ILLUSTRATIONS

  • Portrait of William Bligh
  • The Bread Fruit of O'tahytey
  • Page from Bligh's private log of HMS Bounty
  • Engraving from Bligh's Narrative of the Mutiny
  • A Copy of the Draught from which the Bountys Launch was built
  • Sketch map of Pacific Islands charted by Bligh
  • Lieut: Bligh and his crew of the ship Bounty hospitably received by the Governor of Timor
  • Coupang in the Island Timor
  • On Matavai River, Island of O'tahytey
  • Miniature of Mary Blig
  • The Mutineers turning Lieut Bligh and part of the officers and crew adrift
  • Sketch from Bligh's private log of HMS Bounty
  • Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks
  • Telescope used by Bligh
  • Brown Booby caught to the Southward of Cape Deliverance
  • References for illustrations.

 

AWAKE, BOLD BLIGH! William Bligh's letters describing the mutiny on HMS Bounty; edited, with an introduction by Paul Brunton.
The images below are scans. This book is slightly longer ( 290 mm.) than my scanner’s platen so these are composite images, each part scanned in the opposite direction, which accounts for the disparity in the colouring at the join.

This book is slightly longer than my scanner’s platen so these are composite images, each part scanned in the opposite direction, which accounts for the disparity in the colouring at the join.   This book is slightly longer than my scanner’s platen so these are composite images, each part scanned in the opposite direction, which accounts for the disparity in the colouring at the join.   This book is slightly longer than my scanner’s platen so these are composite images, each part scanned in the opposite direction, which accounts for the disparity in the colouring at the join.