Bligh [Hardcover]

Gavin Kennedy (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 420 pages
• Publisher: Duckworth Pub; 1st Ed. (U.K.) edition (September 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0715609572
• ISBN-13: 978-0715609576
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,044,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine defense of one of history's most maligned, October 2, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (MY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bligh (Hardcover)

This is not the Captain Bligh of the Nordhoff and Hall novels. Nor does it tell of the Captain Bligh of Charles Laughton's characterization in film. This is a look at the real Captain Bligh of history and Gavin Kennedy gives us a man who was significantly flawed but fundamentally a decent, even caring, commander who lost his ship to the villainous madness of Fletcher Christian. This may be one of the better "pro-Bligh" histories and definitely worth the read. Its style is not dense and its breadth is considerable.

5.0 out of 5 stars william bligh and reality, November 15, 2011

By 

Stephen Constantelos "sbconstant" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bligh (Hardcover)

This is a heavy hardcover of old. The copyright reads: First published in 1978 by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., The Old Piano Factory, 43 Gloucester Crescent, London NW1. You know a quality experience is at hand. Although Bligh's journal and subsequent trial transcripts and other recollections of the mutiny (as published by Penguin) were a wonder to me, Gavin Kennedy's now obscure book might be my favorite of the year. It is dense, and if you skip a paragraph or skim a chapter here and there, fascinating.

This book is very clearly a defense of Bligh every step of the way, and here is where it both succeeds and fails, providing the most detailed account of his life I've heard of and arguments defending him that can be tedious, maddening, or both.

I was satisfied with the above Penguin for the mutiny and its aftermath, which take up about two thirds of Kennedy's book, and sought out this book more for its other third, on the other periods of Bligh's career. There's surprisingly little here on his miraculous 47-day, 3,618 nautical mile open-boat voyage, but a lot you won't find many other places on the battles of Camperdown and Copenhagen, another mutiny and court martial Bligh was embroiled in, and Bligh's ill-fated attempts to govern New South Wales, Australia against the entrenched and selfish interests of John Macarthur.

Kennedy builds up Bligh by contrasting his humane attitude to the captaincies of mutineer Fletcher Christian and Edward Edwards. He uses words like "condign" and "inter alia" and "emolument." He is at one point given to wild speculation--did Fletcher Christian escape Pitcairn Island, despite credible reports to the contrary, and wind up living in the Lake District sheltered by friends and family of William Wordsworth, and end up directly providing material for Coleridge's Rime of Ancient Mariner? Kennedy leaves it coyly for the reader to decide about such codswallop. But Kennedy is a master of many sources, a thorough comber of Bligh's journals and memoranda; he is legalistic in making his case; no stone is left unturned.

It is mostly compelling reading, although I found myself skimming or skipping pieces. Kennedy inserts letters home and humorous quotes that humanize Bligh: "That Christian ... intended to go on shore 10 leagues from the land on a fir plank with two staves for paddles with a roasted pig is too ridiculous," his reaction to hearing of Christian's supposed original intentions.

If nothing else, this book balances out other accounts, painting a portrait of a gifted geographer and navigator, courageous captain, an impatient man prone to fits of anger when crossed or disappointed by his underlings. Also a caring man who took pains for the health of his crew, his country, and family. All in all, this is a fine, sympathetic portrait of William Bligh as likely ever will be produced. We are also constantly reminded what a striving, grasping world this can be, at least as Kennedy portrays it.