The most controversial figure in British naval history, the infamous Captain Bligh recounts his famous victories over Napoleon, his sexual encounters among foreign natives, his relationship to Captain Cook, and the celebrated mutiny of his friend Fletcher Christian.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
British admiral William Bligh, best remembered for the mutiny on his HMS Bounty, springs to blustering, vivid life in Australian writer Collett's cleverly constructed novel. Set in 1817, the last year of Bligh's life, and narrated by the old salt himself, it presents a more sympathetic portrait of the crusty, cursing sea dog than can be found in Nordhoff's classic trilogy. Though he was charged with tyranny by the men who mutinied in 1789 while the Bounty sailed from Tahiti to the West Indies, Bligh paints himself as a caring, paternalistic, misunderstood commander. He tenderly frets over his epileptic daughter, Anne (but he is a tyrant to her siblings). He has recurrent nightmares featuring his loyal quartermaster Jonathon Norton, who died while saving the crew from murderous natives. He receives with grim satisfaction news of the murder of chief mutineer Fletcher Christian on Pitcairn Island. Ruing his sexually stultifying marriage, Bligh recalls erotic dances in Timor, which he reached in 1789 after a remarkable 3600-mile voyage in an open longboat. He reminisces over the Battle of Copenhagen (1801), in which he and Nelson crushed Napoleon's allies, and relives his ill-fated governorship of New South Wales, which also ended in mutiny in 1808. These kaleidoscopic memories alternate with scenes in which a bitter, disputatious Bligh copes with his domestic life, and together they present a highly colored picture of early 19th-century British society. The denouement includes another mutiny, an irony that readers will appreciate.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In these, the purported reminiscences and reveries of Admiral Bligh in his dotage, memories of mutiny combine with his contemporary exasperations to reveal the character of the notorious master of the Bounty. This Bligh, when not calumniating against Fletcher Christian's perfidy, fulminates about his neighbors and complains about his health and his daughters, which accumulates an image of a selfishly sensitive tyrant, ready to give battle at trivial affronts. Irritability may have been the real Bligh's hallmark, and Collett peppers this character's speech with chains of oaths and imprecations; but he was evidently a capable mariner, as his rise from cabin boy to fleet admiral attests, not to mention his legendary voyage across the Pacific in an open boat after the mutiny. Still, the guy grates on the nerves, and Collett re-creates those traits well enough to indicate why he faced numerous revolts over his career. Add to that Collett's feel for nautical jargon from Britain's days of sail, and he's baited the hook for those readers who make Patrick O'Brian's sea sagas, for example, so popular Gilbert Taylor
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Inaccurate, "politcally correct" view of Bligh,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Last Mutiny: The Further Adventures of Captain Bligh (Hardcover)
From the Hollywood types, William Bligh has come down to us as the epitome of tyrants, a man who got what he deserved in the Bounty incident. Although Bligh certainly did a poor job in his handling of his subordinates during the Bounty expedition, including choosing a personal friend, Fletcher Christian, as first mate, he had a long and distinguished career. His voyage in an open boat thousands of miles, bringing those men who remained loyal to him to Timor and safety, is one of the true great adventures of history. While not a perfect leader, he was certainly better than the pathetic creature that Mr. Collett makes him out to be.....
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