Mutiny on the Bounty
1789 CE.
Shown on the map at -47.750°, 179.050°.
The Mutiny on the Bounty occurred in the Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the Royal Navy merchant ship HMS Bounty from its captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and 18 loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The reasons behind the mutiny are still debated. Bounty had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies. A five-month layover in Tahiti, during which many of the men lived ashore and formed relationships with native Polynesians, led those men to be less amenable to naval discipline. Relations between Bligh and his crew deteriorated after he reportedly began handing out increasingly harsh punishments, criticism and abuse, with Christian being a particular target. After three weeks back at sea, Christian and others forced Bligh from the ship. Twenty-five men remained on board afterwards, including loyalists held against their will, and others for whom there was no room in the launch. Bligh and his adrift crew navigated more than 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) in the launch to reach safety.
Text from the Wikipedia article Mutiny on the Bounty, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.