This is an entertaining if odd little book and is much overated. I had two problems with it: 1) There are no footnotes but all sorts of two-hundred year old dialogue provided. The author has verbatim discussions taking place on the remote island that certainly could not have been recorded (but how would we know since none of it is footnoted?). Mostly, the author made it up it seems and the device shadows the credibility of the whole book. 2) And if I was not incredulous enough over the history-as-soap opera style, the author saves his blockbuster thesis for the last chapter. He agues that the crusty Captain Bligh and Spencer Christian were really gay lovers and this explains the combustibility and passions that came into play. Bligh according to this view was jealous of Christian's love affair with the Tahitian girl he later fathered three children with. The author offers not one shred of evidence for this, not one shred, and says as much in the final pages of the book. This book has an amateurish feel, written by an author who got away for too long with writing pseudo-histories. This book is not without redeeming qualities; it certainly is interesting and a good read. The 1984 movie The Bounty was based on this account, though the movie, mercifully, skipped over some of Robert Blough's more nutty conclusions.

I can't remember exactly where I came across my copy of this book...I think my parents unearthed it in thier attic one afternoon and gave it to me, the family's avid reader. I took it with me to St. Croix as a means to pass the time, and there sitting in a hammock on a beach not unlike the ones described in the book I began my adventure.
"Mutiny on the Bounty" chronicles the story of the HMS Bounty under Lt. Bligh, a thoroughly tyrannical leader if ever there was one. Shortly after thier departure from Tahiti (to get breadfruit trees for the slave colonies of the West Indies), the mutiny takes place and Bligh and a dozen other loyal crew members are put into the Bounty's open launch and set adrift. The remaining pages are dedicated to those left behind on the Bounty, both mutineer and loyalists.
"Men Against the Sea" tells the story of Bligh and the other loyal crewmembers who were stranded with him in the launch, and of thier gripping journey back to civilized land, covering some 3600 miles according to the book.
"Pitcairn's Island" continues the saga by finishing the stories of Fletcher Christian and his small band of remaining mutineers trip to the deserted island of the same name. There they set up a safe haven to hide in, until the Tahitian men rebel...
I read this book, unable to put it down. All three of the stories are amazingly gripping and this book is a true page-turner in every respect. Maybe being on a tropical island added something to it, I may never know, but I would certainly recommend this to anyone who just wants a really good story!

The subject matter is engrossing and will leave you wanting for more when it's all done. I'm a sometime visitor to Pitcairn Island's website, check there to see how the decendants of the original crewmembers are doing :)

The Bounty mutiny is perhaps the most fascinating and stirring sea adventure in world history, even more so than the TITANIC. Hough's book is an excellent reexamination of the story and of the complex relationship between William Bligh and Fletcher Christian. While I don't agree with Hough's conclusions as to what was really at the heart of the mutiny (I won't spoil it for you by revealing that here) the relationship was combustible and was at the heart of the mutiny.

The Bounty crew were for the most part hand-picked and young. Christian was only in his early 20s, Bligh was in his early 30s and only a very few of the crew were in their late 30s or early 40s. Despite the popular image of the story, Bligh was actually pretty lenient with his crew when it came to punishment and he made it all the way to Tahiti losing only a single man. During his epic open boat voyage after the mutiny, he made it to Coupang having lost only one man en route, although many of the survivors died within weeks of their rescue. Bligh was a complainer, a nagger and had a viciously sharp tongue though which was more than the youthful Christian could bear.

Far from the heroic image that Christian is given in the movies, Hough shows that Christian was impulsive and not much of a leader. While Bligh, sharp tongue and all, was able to save nearly all of the men who were kicked off the ship with him, Christian and his men met with disaster at almost every turn, primarily because Christian was a failure as a leader. The mutineers' disastrous attempt to settle on Pitcairn Island is perhaps the most gripping and fascinating part of the story.

Hough's book is excellent and the Mel Gibson/Anthony Hopkins movie "The Bounty" was based on it and is by far the most authentic and best of the Bounty movies.