More on Lieutenant William Bligh, RN

Lieutenant William Bligh was himself probably not much different from most naval captains of the time. Having sailed with the legendary Captain Cook and having been to the South Pacific made Bligh ideal for the job of taking Bounty to Tahiti.

Contrary to the idea of him being a brutal disciplinarian, Bligh was a pretty standard issue captain who in fact had difficulty maintaining order particularly with his officers – a class clash between gentlemen and a self-made man.

If anything he was more lenient than most. One crew member who died of infection during the voyage to Tahiti caused Bligh great concern. He had an aversion to flogging and took no pleasure from it.

Charles Laughton, as a cruel Captain Bligh in the 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty, was perhaps one of his most famous roles. Laughton certainly seared the myth of Bligh’s brutality into the public mind. If there was a lightening rod for the stories of brutality in the Royal Navy of 1780s, Laughton fulfilled it by playing Bligh as a sadistic captain, a Laughton fabrication.