![]() ![]() Byam and the other men are then allowed to present their defenses. ![]() Testimony is given by the men of the Bounty who made it back to England. The court-martial of Byam and his companions begins. The mutineers are imprisoned aboard another vessel, which takes them back to England to await their court-martial. The small boats make an open-sea journey, and finally, after several months of sailing and torturous conditions, they reach land safely. While taking the prisoners back to England to be tried for mutiny, the ship runs aground on a reef and sinks, but not before the crew and prisoners have taken refuge in the ship's smaller boats. Byam rows out to meet the vessel and is immediately imprisoned as a mutineer, along with the other Englishmen on the island. A child is born to the couple, and life on Tahiti continues to be a paradise-until an English ship drops anchor at the island. Then he resumes his search for an unchartered and uninhabited island.īyam eases himself back into the idyllic life he experienced the first time on the island, and soon he marries a Tahitian princess. Those who wish to accompany Bligh but cannot because of the already-crowded conditions in the launch are forced to remain with the mutineers aboard the Bounty.Ĭhristian immediately begins sailing the South Sea in search of an uninhabited island, but finding none and tired of the complaints of his fellow mutineers, Christian returns to Tahiti, where he drops off those who wish to stay on the island, including Byam. Accordingly, one morning, some of the crew, led by Christian, seize the ship and force Bligh, along with some of Bligh's followers, into the Bounty's launch to fend for themselves on the high seas. His officers, notably Fletcher Christian, begin grumbling over the poor treatment that they are receiving at the hands of Bligh. The Bounty sets sail for the West Indies to deliver the trees, and early in the voyage, Bligh harasses his crew - in particular, he accuses some of them of stealing coconuts. Not surprisingly, three men desert before the ship leaves. Many of the men form attachments to the Tahitian women, and the realization that the Bounty will soon be sailing from this idyllic life causes grumbling among the crew. Members of the crew begin the task of digging up young breadfruit trees and storing them on board the ship. The Bounty reaches Tahiti, and Byam begins studying the Tahitian language with the aid of some of the natives. Food rots, the crew suspects Bligh of hoarding food for himself, and several men are accused of stealing. The ship makes calls on several islands during its journey to Tahiti, and, meanwhile, conditions aboard the ship begin to deteriorate. The Bounty sets sail in November 1787, and its crew is introduced to the reader. Byam is expected to formulate a dictionary of the Tahitian language. Roger Byam is introduced to the reader, and we learn that he has been extended an invitation by Captain William Bligh to embark on an expedition to Tahiti to gather breadfruit trees and take them to the West Indies, where they will be planted and their fruit fed to the slaves of English colonists. ![]()
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