HMS Bounty departure for Tahiti
- When
- 1787
- Where
- Spithead, England (departure point); Deptford
- Episodes
- 2
On 23 December 1787 HMS Bounty, a recently purchased and refitted armed vessel commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh, sailed from Spithead for Tahiti on a breadfruit-gathering mission. The departure followed Bligh's August 1787 appointment and the ship's Deptford refitting, and preceded a ten-month Pacific voyage.
Episodes
- Bligh appointed and Bounty refitted
Bligh was appointed commanding lieutenant on 16 August 1787, after the ship's June refitting at Deptford following its May purchase.
- HMS Bounty departs Spithead for Tahiti
Bounty sailed from Spithead on 23 December 1787 under Lieutenant William Bligh, bound for Tahiti to collect breadfruit plants.
Background and detail
Background. The Royal Navy purchased the merchant vessel for £1,950 on 23 May 1787 and refitted her at Deptford in June 1787, renaming her Bounty. She was intended for a botanical mission to the South Pacific.
Command and Mission. William Bligh, aged 33 and a veteran of Cook's third voyage as sailing master of Resolution, was appointed commanding lieutenant on 16 August 1787. The mission aimed to acquire breadfruit plants in Tahiti and transport them to the British West Indies.
The Departure. On 23 December 1787 Bounty sailed from Spithead for Tahiti. Her complement numbered 46 men, with Bligh as the sole commissioned officer and two civilian gardeners to tend the plants.
People involved
- William Bligh · Commanding lieutenant of HMS Bounty
Sources
- HMS Bounty Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-20
- William Bligh Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.