Blurb

Bligh's Other Mutiny
ARTHUR HAWKEY

Captain Bligh of the Bounty has come down through the years as the archetypal naval tyrant—all that was brutal among Britain's eighteenth century sea commanders.
This popular conception of him is not new—it was first fostered by an influential relative of one of the mutineers who was saved from the hangman's rope. In modern times the image has been reinforced by imaginative film versions of the Bounty uprising.
This book shows that the real Blighalthough a man of explosive temperament— was, by the standards of his time, a reasonably considerate officer who did not make excessive use of the lash, a common punishment at the time in the Royal Navy. But he expected from others total obedience to his authority as he, in his turn, gave complete obedience to the authority of his superior officers. Disobedience and indiscipline he could not and would not tolerate, either in himself or in his men.
It was this inflexible streak that again cast William Bligh as the victim of a more serious, but comparatively little-known, army rebellion when he became Governor of New South Wales in 1805, and the author unfolds these stirring events that reached their climax in London when Lieutenant Colonel George Johnston was court martialled for mutiny. Bligh's whole career was revealed under the Colonel's searching cross-examination. That Bligh's record withstood this intense court-room onslaught is vindication in itself of a much- maligned man.
The author draws on contemporary accounts and diaries to build up a fascinating picture of a difficult, but essentially just man, and at the same time, reflects the wider struggles of a small colony in its efforts to achieve statehood.

The author

ARTHUR HAWKEY

Arthur Hawkey is the House of Commons lobby correspondent for a leading British newspaper.
Boats and the sea are in his blood: on his father's side he is descended from a line of Cornish seamen, and on his mother's from a family of fen watermen. He has also built, unaided by a kit, a twelve foot oak, clinker-built sailing boat.
Besides numerous articles Arthur Hawkey has also written two other books.

Contents

Preface
1 A man against the sea
2 Escape from the beach
3 Cannibals astern
4 Landfall in Timor
5 Bligh at the battle of Camp erdown
6 Bligh at the battle of Copenhagen
7 Charged as a tyrant
8 Rum battalion
9 The captain comes ashore
10 The master puppeteer
11 The odour of rum
12 Courtroom manoeuvres
13 A night of revelry
14 Macarthur on trial
15 Mutiny at sundown
16 A pledge of honour
17 Court martial in London
18 Bligh stands his ground
19 An honest and upright man
20 Macarthur cross-examined
21 The sergeant-major's evidence
22 Curious account of a bed
23 Finding of the court
24 A man and his company
Bibliography
Index