On which side would you be?

Without a doubt Bligh, He was a orderly respectable man. Fletcher just wanted his woman. It really could of gone either way for if I was there it would of depended on the sitituation. Alot of it had to do with emotions for the men who followed the mutiny. If I had a woman I deeply loved on Titati I would of probably sided with Flecher Chistian. But otherwise no, I would prefer to team up with Bligh and return home to a much more developed and homely society and culture back in england. (Im actually from england)

"If you read the original story, there was not enough room in the launch for ALL the people who wanted to go with Bligh to do so. Christian dropped them off in Tahiti..."

This is true. In fact, at least one person who was in the launch was ordered back onto the ship.

"and when a British frigate arrived in search of Bounty mutineers, the ones that would have preferred to stay with Bligh were promptly arrested and charged with mutiny and piracy. Apparently three were convicted and executed on the false testimony of Bligh, two were pardoned."

This is not accurate. Twenty-five men remained on the Bounty. After a failed attempt to settle on a nearby island, sixteen of them were dropped off at Tahiti, while the other nine eventually went to Pitcairn's Island. Some of the men who remained on Tahiti took an active role in the mutiny, based on the testimony of several others, not just Bligh. One of the mutineers murdered another, and was in turn killed by Tahitians. The fourteen remaining sailors were picked up by the Pandora, which had been sent in search of the Bounty. Although several of these men were specifically noted in Bligh's report as having taken part in the mutiny, all were treated as mutineers and locked up on the ship. The Pandora struck a reef and sank, taking four of the prisoners (as well as 30 crewmen) with her. The remaining ten were eventually taken back to England for court-martial. Four were acquitted (Bligh had "cleared" three of these; the fourth was an almost blind fiddler who sat helplessly as the mutiny took place). Two were convicted but pardoned (for the most part, witnesses said they took no part in the mutiny, and the testimony of those who said they did was questionable). One was convicted but had his conviction overturned on a technicality (he was very, very lucky). Three were convicted and hung, based on the testimony of nearly all of the witnesses, not just Bligh. Bligh, in fact, was not a witness at the trial, as he was on a second, successful, mission to transport breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies.

Of the nine sailors who went to Pitcairn's Island, seven, including Christain, died violently within a few years (along with the six Polynesian men who had joined them).

Of the 19 men on the launch, one was killed by natives of an island where they had stopped for food and water; and five died of ilness shortly after they reached the safety of the Dutch colony in present day Indonesia. One was lost at sea before he made it back to England.

I would likely have gone with Bligh.

Think about it, going with Christian the best you could hope for is a life spent hiding out, always dreading the approach of a British ship. At the worst, you know you'd be hung. Plus, you knew that you could never, ever see your home or family again.

I concur with an earlier poster.

Of the men left behind in Tahiti, the majority had not taken part in the mutiny. When the Pandora arrived, Captain Edwards simply decided to arrest them all and let the matter of guilt be decided back in England.

Of those that survived the sinking of the Pandora, those that had taken no part in the mutiny were easily cleared once the court-martials got underway back in London. The three men who were hung had definitely taken part in the mutiny and had -for whatever reason- opted to remain behind in Tahiti. (Christian was smart enough to know they couldn't stay in Tahiti. He reasoned that, even if Bligh and all his loyalists had perished, when the Bounty failed to arrive in either the West Indies or England the Royal Navy would send out a vessel to look for her or at least try to learn what happened. When that happened, Tahiti would be the first place they'd come looking)

One thing I've always wondered. Why didn't Christian think of trying to sail the Bounty for the west coast of North America? Yes, it would be long haul across the Pacific but they could have made it (provided they were able to occasionally replenish fresh water). True, it wouldn't have been the polynesian dreamlife they were hoping for. But, it would have had its own advantages. First, it wouldn't have been an island that could easily be missed. It was a continental coastline. If they sailed east long enough they would have reached it. Second, they could have put in at any point along a vast coastline. Even if a Royal Navy vessel came along, the chances of it finding them would have been very long. And third, they could have just migrated into the interior where they had vast space to settle where they would have liked and not worried about the conflicts that eventually wrecked the early Pitcairn settlement. They wouldn't have had to try and get along on a relatively small island.

In one account I read about Bligh, it said that his one real personality fault was that he had a very short fuse. On the slightest thing, he would blow up and use language so rough, that he was once admonished by a Board of Inquiry. However, once he had blown up and ranted, he would always cool down and let the matter drop. It was almost like that was his emotional release. He would yell and scream, but then just forget about it and move on. I suspect most people he dealt with realized this and learned to live with it. They endured the verbal storm, knowing that it would soon pass and Bligh would then forgive and forget the matter.

The trouble was that Fletcher Christian was a very broody man who would stew over the harangues he received from Bligh. In all likelihood Bligh never realized it was having this affect on Christian. Christian was emotionally fed-up over Bligh's ranting (Although it was really Christian's own fault. As second-in-command, the onus was on him to get the crew to perform their duties adequately. He was failing at that because he was far too caught up in his own mental quagmire), and was desiring to return to an idyllic life in Tahiti.

What pushed the situation past the boiling point was Christian's popularity amongst the crew. He was -as one account described- the only officer on the ship who had the influence to either instigate or stop a mutiny. To the detriment of all concerned, he chose the former.

It seemed to me that Christian seemed to regret the mutiny after it had happened. He had probably thought it through and realized the implications. He knew he could never return to England again and would be a marked man for the rest of his life. I got the impression Christian was an impulsive man who often acted on his passions without fully thinking it through. Plus, I suspect he had some personality issues to aggravate the situation. Men who sailed with him described Christian as an emotionally volatile man prone to mood swings. He could, apparently, go from extreme happiness to crushing depression and back again. Perhaps nowadays he'd be diagnosed as a manic depressive. Of course, that doesn't excuse causing mutiny. However, it could explain some of his motivations.

I rather suspect that Christian wasn't a man ideally suited for such a long voyage on such a -relatively- small vessel. For that matter, neither was Bligh. Bligh was an expert seaman and navigator, but he really lacked the people skills for such a long expedition. He always did much better in more extreme situations where his skills as a mariner were better used and he'd be too occupied to get worked up over small details. Putting Bligh and Christian together, with their respective personalities (and their inherent personality flaws) in such a small space for such a long time was a recipe for trouble. Most likely, if Bligh had chosen someone else for Master's Mate, or if Christian had sailed under a different captain, the voyage would have been completed without incident and the name Bounty would now be forgotten in everything except the archives of the Royal Navy.

I completely agree that Christian and his thugs bore the whole onus for the mutiny. I feel the only real mistake Bligh made (aside from his aforementioned short fuse) was to allow discipline to fall apart during the five months the ship was at Tahiti. In hindsight, this was clearly where the seeds of the mutiny were planted and Bligh really should have known better. However, that doesn't excuse Christian.

In the film, I felt there really wasn't a clear villain or hero. Both Bligh and Christian were portrayed as complex people. Each had their attributes and their faults.

As for the idea that the Spaniards controlled the western coast of North America. That is true. However, considering the size of the coast, they could still have made landfall on some uninhabited spot and then essentially disappeared into the vast interior. They could have landed somewhere further north, like the coast of Oregon, Washington or British Columbia where a myriad of coves would have allowed both seclusion and more than adequate hiding places inland.

In real life it's the other way around...

I'd be on the side that had the sense not to sail with that prick in the first place

I'd side with Bligh, as did the majority of the crew.

"Bligh. And if I live through that I'm quiting the Royal Navy, or at least, get on a different ship with a different commander." - nyghtflyer

As if you had a choice :-(.

I'd probably have sided with Bligh. I wouldn't have liked it, but I'd be no traitor and mutineer. Upon returning to England I would have done what I could to bring the treatment of the Bounty's sailors to light while respecting the chain of command to the extent possible. Or I'd just suck it up and get on with my life.

There is nothing so much like God on Earth than a General on a battlefield or the Captain of a ship at sea. There are reasons for that. Fletcher Christians heart may have been in the right place, but he cracked and went about the whole thing all wrong.

In any case, I have a great respect for Bligh as a sailor. Nobody could do what he did unless they were damn good at what they do.

Once again, someone making the fundamental error of judging people in history by today's standards.

"Well she turned me in to a newt!... I got better."