Mutiny on the Bounty

Name: Mutiny on the Bounty
Start: 1789
Location: Off Tofua, Tonga

1789 · Off Tofua, Tonga · Oceania · Exploration

Sailors mutiny aboard a ship carrying breadfruit trees

The Bounty was carrying breadfruit seedlings from Tahiti to the West Indies when in April 1789 Fletcher Christian led a mutiny. Captain Bligh and 18 loyal men were set adrift in a launch, which Bligh sailed 6,700 km to Timor. The mutineers hid on Pitcairn, where their descendants still live.

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century

Did you know

The navy's most famous mutiny broke out on a ship carrying plants. The Bounty was taking breadfruit seedlings from Tahiti to the West Indies when its crew rose up in 1789. Share →

Captain Bligh, set adrift by mutineers, sailed 6,700 km in an open boat. He had 18 men, few supplies and almost no charts, and reached Timor in 47 days. Share →

The Bounty mutineers' hideout was found only 18 years later. In 1808 American sealers landed on Pitcairn and found one surviving mutineer living with the others' children. Share →

Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)

Europe

1789 Storming of the Bastille — same year
1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — same year
1796 Jenner's first vaccination — 7 years later
1804 Coronation of Napoleon — 15 years later
1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — 25 years later

Eastern Europe & Russia

1764 Founding of the Hermitage — 25 years earlier
c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — 21 years earlier
1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — 17 years earlier
1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — 6 years earlier
1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — 23 years later

Africa

1798 Battle of the Pyramids — 9 years later
1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — 15 years later
1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — 16 years later

Americas

1776 US Declaration of Independence — 13 years earlier
1787 US Constitution — 2 years earlier
1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — 2 years later
1803 Louisiana Purchase — 14 years later
1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — 21 years later