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Lady Belcher (Diana Belcher) : The Mutineers of the Bounty and Their Descendants in Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands. With Illustrations

John Murray, London, England, 1870

Dark blue 3/4 leather binding with blue cloth-covered boards. Gilt lettering on red leather spine labels. Gilt decorative lines on covers and spine. Top edge gilt. Five raised bands. Beautiful swirled marbling, with predominant light blue color, on endpapers. 5 1/4" x 7 1/2." 420 pages, complete. Nine black-and-white plates, including a map, complete. Appendices A and B in back. Black-and-white illustrated bookplate of a Washington author tipped in on front pastedown: "Ex libris; George H. Tweney." The bookplate shows a man perusing a library filled with books, several of which are scattered on the floor. Pages clean and intact except for light age toning and the small occasional stain. Covers clean and intact except for slight wear to extremities and slightly chipped spine labels. Binding tight. A Very Good copy. An intriguing account of the HMS Bounty mutiny by Lady Diana Belcher, the stepdaughter of Peter Heywood (1772-1831), a British naval officer and hydrographer. Heywood was a midshipman aboard the HMS Bounty during the infamous mutiny of April 28, 1789. He was one of the mutineers led by Fletcher Christian (1764-1793). The main cause of the mutiny was the general discontent of crew members who had become increasingly agitated by the harsh punishment tactics used by the ship's captain, Lieutenant William Bligh (1754-1817). After Christian and the other mutineers took over the Bounty, they forced Bligh and some of the loyalists off the ship and onto the Bounty's launch. The remaining loyalists stayed on board due to the limited carrying capacity of the launch. Bligh and his group sailed to the Dutch East Indies and eventually back to England where a court-martial was issued for the mutineers. In the meantime, Christian and the mutineers had first sailed back to Tahiti where they had previously been for their original mission to collect breadfruit. Upon their return, many of the mutineers chose to settle on Tahiti and risk discovery. However, Christian was among another faction of the mutineers who chose to sail farther away to avoid detection. The final stop of Christian and his group was Pitcairn Island where the Bounty was dismantled and destroyed. All of the mutineers and loyalists on Tahiti were discovered in March 1791 and court-martialed. They were detained on board the HMS Pandora commanded by Captain Edward Edwards (1741-1815). Some of mutineers and Edwards's crew drowned en route to England after the Pandora ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. Of the remaining group from Tahiti, four were acquitted (all of whom were loyalists to Bligh), three were pardoned, and three were hanged. Heywood was one of the mutineers who received a royal pardon from King George III. He went on to have a successful naval career and eventually attained the rank of post-captain. The court-martial had revealed unsavory details about Bligh's behavior and treatment of his crew through various witness testimonies. Bligh had been away at sea during the court-martial for another breadfruit mission. When he had left in August 1791, he was generally seen as a hero and had been honorably acquitted for losing the Bounty. When Bligh returned in August 1793, public opinion had turned against him, and he was reprimanded for his behavior. Although his reputation was damaged, Bligh continued his naval career and later became the governor of New South Wales. As for Christian and his group, they tried establish a settlement on Pitcairn. It is widely believed that Christian was among the mutineers who were murdered in a clash with Tahitian men. With the exception of John Adams (1767-1829), the other Pitcairn mutineers were either murdered in separate circumstances, committed suicide, or succumbed to health complications. Adams was the only surviving Pitcairn mutineer to be discovered by an outside ship in 1808 and was granted amnesty for his role in the mutiny. To this day, there are still descendants of the Bounty mutineers who live on Pitcairn.. Book. Book Condition: Very Good. Binding: Hardcover

1st Edition

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