The Movies Were Wrong: The Real Facts About the Mutiny on the Bounty

There are maritime myths too, just like on dry land

HMS Bounty (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Myths, misconceptions, and outright historical revisionism are just as alive and well on the high seas as on dry land. Perhaps because the period has been romanticized by Hollywood for so long, this is most prevalent in what is commonly referred to as the Age of Sail. But the period was thrilling enough without altering the facts, so let’s set the record straight on one legendary event the movies, and we, get wrong far too often.

There is little question that the most famous mutiny of all time occurred on the Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on April 28, 1789. Most people today know the details of the mutiny only from Hollywood films, with the three most famous being Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and The Bounty (1984). In these films the role of William Bligh was played by Charles Laughton, Trevor Howard, and Anthony Hopkins, respectively; Fletcher Christian was played by Clark Gable in 1935, Marlon Brando in 1962, and Mel Gibson in 1984.

The very fact that in each of these films, the role of Fletcher Christian was played by the one of the great screen heartthrobs of the time shows how skewed the account will be from the very start. The standard line about the Bounty…