Uprising on the Bounty: the fate of the anti-hero Fletcher Christian (10 photos)

Although, was he really such an anti-hero as it seems to us after centuries?





The long history of the mutiny on the Bounty began with the confrontation between two main characters - Captain William Bligh and his assistant Fletcher Christian. One of them is a villain, the other is a hero. Which of them plays this or that role depends on how you look at this story from what angle.



Fletcher Christian and the other mutineers of the Bounty land Captain Bligh and his loyal crew. Painting by Robert Dodd

Either Bligh was a tyrant and Christian was a righteous man, or Christian was power hungry and Bligh was a victim. In any case, Bligh returned home to be acquitted of his crimes, and Christian sailed off to live out the rest of his days in the Pacific Islands. How was it really?

Mutiny on the Bounty





Fletcher Christian

The events that became the starting point for the further fate of Fletcher Christian occurred in 1789. Bligh and his crew went to Tahiti to get breadfruit. Three weeks after sailing, Fletcher and his comrades woke up the captain at night and sent him to the open sea aboard a small boat. Four people loyal to Bligh remained on board the Bounty because they did not fit in the boat. Bligh traveled more than 6,710 km and miraculously escaped. Christian returned to the islands.

Life after the mutiny



Pitcairn Island

The story of the mutiny became public thanks to Bligh and his faithful companions. The world learned about what happened next thanks to the large number of people who went with Christian. They first arrived on the islands around Tahiti. But they turned out to be too dangerous because of the natives. Then they went to Tahiti. Sixteen of the original 24, including those still loyal to the captain, remained in Tahiti when Fletcher Christian absconded with the Bounty. These were 7 English sailors, 6 Tahitian men, 11 Tahitian women and 1 baby.

When Fletcher Christian left Tahiti, he went to Pitcairn Island. The fact of its existence has not yet been properly documented. Therefore, the likelihood that he would be found there was minimal. The evidence of his arrival on Pitcairn Island is irrefutable - the ill-fated Bounty ship was found sunken nearby. It was flooded by a man and his crew to hide their lawlessness and prevent any of them from leaving and informing the authorities on the others. It is at this stage that the circumstances of Christian's life cannot be established with certainty. They are known from the words of two people.

Has Fletcher Christian returned to England?



The less credible of the two accounts of Christian's whereabouts after the mutiny links Christian to England. Peter Heywood, one of those who returned to England, said that he once saw Christian on the street. However, even he was skeptical about returning. Moreover, no one else saw the organizer of the rebellion in England. But there were rumors that he had come to visit his aunt.



Sir John Barrow, a friend of Heywood, wrote a book called The Mutiny and Pirate Capture of the Bounty Ship. In it he mentions a rumor about Fletcher Christian's return to England:

Around 1808 and 1809, it was widely believed in the vicinity of Lake Cumberland and Lake Westmoreland that Christian was in that part of the country and was paying frequent private visits to his aunt who lived there.

How did he manage to do this without a ship? The question is very interesting, but it remains unanswered.

Death on Pitcairn Island



Alexander Smith

According to another, more plausible version of the fate of Fletcher Christian, he was on Pitcairn Island until his death. In 1808, Mayhew Folger, captain of the ship Topaz, met several Tahitian youths on Pitcairn Island who spoke good English. He said he was introduced to a man they called their father, but whose name was allegedly Alexander Smith. There were no other Englishmen on the island. Smith told Folger that the rebels who went to Pitcairn were killed by Tahitian slaves. The slaves were in turn killed by Smith and the Tahitian women.

In 1814, two more ships collided with Alexander Smith. He admitted that his name was actually John Adams, making him the last of the rebels. John Adams gave more details, but the story that rebel slaves killed Christian remains the same. He left behind three children and a Tahitian wife.



Clark Gable as Fletcher in 1935's Mutiny on the Bounty

It is unlikely that he returned to England, where he was guaranteed to be hanged for dubious exploits. However, he could have gone to another island, as some have speculated. But to do this, he would have to build a boat so that no one would notice, sneak away, leave his children and live alone for the rest of his days. This seems dubious and there is no real evidence for it.



Marlon Brando as Fletcher in the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty

Although the only evidence is the testimony of the mutineer, his wife and the reports of three ship captains, it is logical that Fletcher Christian remained on Pitcairn Island. Fletcher had family on the island. He even sank his only means of returning to England. Was it worth it? Only Christian himself knew the answer to the question. And the story of the Bounty, which received wide publicity, inspired representatives of various fields of art to create more than 2 thousand works of various genres - poems, novels, films.



Mel Gibson as Fletcher in the 1984 film The Bounty