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Bligh's Orders Were To Enter Pacific Through Cape Horn?


I just rewatched this for the first time since it came out in theaters...

Towards the beginning of Bligh's court-martial, the judges are castigating him for taking something like "35 days to go 15 miles" or something like that... around Cape Horn... This doesn't seem to jive with the real account...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty

In order to survey an important but under-explored passage, Bligh's sailing orders stated that he was to enter the Pacific via Cape Horn around South America and then, after collecting the breadfruit plants, sail westward through the Endeavour Strait. He was then to cross the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans to the West Indies islands in the Caribbean. Bounty would thus complete a circumnavigation of the Earth in the Southern Hemisphere.

....

On 15 October 1787, Bounty left Deptford for Spithead, in the English Channel, to await final sailing orders. Adverse weather delayed arrival at Spithead until 4 November. Bligh was anxious to depart quickly and reach Cape Horn before the end of the short southern summer, but the Admiralty did not accord him high priority and delayed issuing the orders for a further three weeks. When Bounty finally sailed on 28 November, the ship was trapped by contrary winds and unable to clear Spithead until 23 December.

With the prospect of a passage around Cape Horn now in serious doubt, On 15 October 1787, Bounty left Deptford for Spithead, in the English Channel, to await final sailing orders. Adverse weather delayed arrival at Spithead until 4 November. Bligh was anxious to depart quickly and reach Cape Horn before the end of the short southern summer, but the Admiralty did not accord him high priority and delayed issuing the orders for a further three weeks. When Bounty finally sailed on 28 November, the ship was trapped by contrary winds and unable to clear Spithead until 23 December. With the prospect of a passage around Cape Horn now in serious doubt, Bligh received permission from the Admiralty to take, if necessary, an alternative route to Tahiti via the Cape of Good Hope.

"Bligh received permission from the Admiralty"

I got the impression that most sailors understood this to be a bad plan (some character/characters quipped that the chances of fair weather rounding Cape Horn at that late departure was like 1 in 50...)

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