Left Arrow
Right Arrow
Fateful Voyage

PreviousMinutes & Appendix Home Court Martials Bligh Court-Martial LetterNext

Revised Jun 5 2021

Court-Martial of William Bligh et al.
for the Loss of the Bounty October 22, 1790
Opening

Minutes taken At a Court Martial assembled on board His Majesty's Ship Royal William at Spithead on the 22nd day of October 1790.

Present.

The Honble Samuel Barrington Admiral of the Blue and second Officer in the Command of His Majesty's Ships and Vessels at Portsmouth and Spithead, President

Vice Admiral Robert Roddam

Vice Admiral John Eliot

Rear Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton Bart.

Rear Admiral Sir John Jervis K.B.

Rear Admiral Samuel Granston Goodall

Captain Richard Anslow

Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Hood K.B.

Rear Admiral Herbert Sawyer

Rear Admiral The Honble John Levison Gower

Rear Admiral Samuel Cornish

Sir Roger Curtis K.B. first Captain to the Commander in Chief

Captain Robert Kingsmill

 

The President reported that Vice Admiral William Hotham was ill and could not attend his duty as a Member of the Court.

Oct 15, 1790
Apr 28, 1789

The Court pursuant to an order from the Right Honble Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty dated the 15th day of October Instant and directed to the President proceeded to inquire into the Cause and Circumstances of the Seizure of His Majesty's Armed Vessel the Bounty commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh which had been violently and forcibly taken from him on the 28th of April 1789 by Fletcher Christian, who was Mate of her and Officer of the Watch, assisted by others of the inferior Officers and Men, armed with Musquiets and Bayonets, on her return from Otaheite, with a large Cargo of Bread Fruit Trees and other useful Plants, the Product of the Society Islands in the South Seas, in a very flourishing State, and to try the said Lieutenant Bligh and such of the Officers and Ship's Company as were returned to England for their Conduct on that occasion.

The Members of the Court and the Judge Advocate then in open Court and before they proceeded respectably took the several Oaths, injoined and directed in and by an Act of Parliament made and passed in the 22nd year of the Reign of His late Majesty King George 2nd intitled "An Act for amending explaining and reducing into one Act of Parliament, the Laws relating to the Government of His Majesty's Ships, Vessels and Forces by Sea."


PreviousMinutes & Appendix Home Court Martials Bligh Court-Martial LetterNext