The open-boat voyage to Timor

William Bligh · 1789 CE · Earth

Bring eighteen men, cast adrift in a 7-metre launch, to the nearest European settlement alive.

Historical context

The Bounty was carrying breadfruit seedlings from Tahiti to feed the enslaved workers of the West Indies when Fletcher Christian took the ship on 28 April 1789. Bligh was left with nineteen men, no chart of the seas ahead and provisions for five days, and turned a death sentence into the most celebrated feat of small-boat navigation on record.

The voyage, step by step

1. Cast adrift off Tofua

   28 April 1789

   At dawn on 28 April 1789 Fletcher Christian puts Bligh and eighteen men into the launch with five days’ food.

2. Stones on the beach

   1789 CE

   Landing on Tofua for water and breadfruit, the castaways are attacked as the islanders realise they have no ship.

3. Chased through Fiji

   May 1789

   Threading unknown islands in early May, the launch is chased by two large sailing canoes and escapes only in a squall.

4. Coconut shells and musket balls

   1789 CE

   Bligh weighs every ration on scales made from a coconut shell, balanced against a pistol ball of known weight.

5. Providential Channel

   28 May 1789

   On 28 May the boat finds a gap in the surf of the Great Barrier Reef and slips into smooth water inside.

6. Restoration Island

   29 May 1789

   On 29 May the crew land on an island of oysters and wild berries and eat a hot meal for the first time in a month.

7. Through the Torres Strait

   June 1789

   In the first days of June the launch works west through the reefs and islands of the strait into the Arafura Sea.

8. Timor, 14 June

   14 June 1789

   After 47 days and 3,618 nautical miles the launch enters Kupang under a makeshift signal flag made from a shirt.

Outcome

Reached Kupang on Timor after 47 days and 3,618 nautical miles, with the loss of one man on Tofua.

William Bligh

British naval officer who, cast adrift after the mutiny on the Bounty, navigated an open boat 3,600 nautical miles to Timor.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

• William Bligh — Wikipedia
• A Voyage to the South SeaWilliam Bligh · George Nicol · 1792
• The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the BountyCaroline Alexander · Viking · 2003

Continue exploring

• Survey of the Pacific NorthwestGeorge Vancouver · 1791 CE – 1795 CE
• The voyage of the Boussole and the AstrolabeJean-François de La Pérouse · 1785 CE – 1788 CE
• Second voyageJames Cook · 1772 CE – 1775 CE
• First Pacific voyageJames Cook · 1768 CE – 1771 CE