BLIGH, bli, WILLIAM ( 1754-1817). An Eng lish admiral, celebrated in connection with the mutiny of the Bounty. Ile was born, according to his statement, at Tyntan, Saint Tudy, Corn wall, 1753. It is probable, however, that he was the son of John Bligh, of Tretawne, and born at Plymouth, September 9, 1754. He entered the navy, and as sailing-master accompanied Captain Cook on his second voyage around the world. At Otaheite the bread-fruit tree was discovered, and on December 23, 1787, `Bread-Fruit 13ligh,' as he had been nicknamed, was appointed commander of the Bounty, with orders to sail to Otaheitc or Tahiti, collect breadfruit tree-plants, and trans port them for introduction to the West India Colonies. On the way from Tahiti to .Jamaica, a part of the crew mutinied, and forced the cap tain and eighteen men into the ship's launch, which they cast adrift, turning their own course back to Tahiti. The captain and his companions, who had very little provisions, and no sextant or map, arrived, after three months of severe hard ship, at the island of Timor, a distance of 3600 nautical miles from the point where they were abandoned. To Bligh's skill and courage is due the fact that not a single life was lost. On Bligh's arrival in England, a man-of-war, under Captain Edwards, was sent, at his instance, to capture the mutineers. Some of them were seized: the rest had escaped to Pitcairn Island (q.v.), with Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny, accompanied by a number of Tahitian men and women. Their place of refuge, however, was not discovered until INS. when an American
ship accidentally touched at the island. At that time drunkenness and unbridled passion had left only one of the mutineers, John Adams, remain ing, who had succeeded in instilling morals and religion in the little community there. Their fortunes form the subject of a poem by Byron, entitled The Island of Christian and His Com rades. Bligh was again sent out to collect bread fruit trees and convey them to the West Indies, in which he was successful. In 1794, during the French Revolutionary War, Bligh commanded a ship of the line; but again exciting the disaffec tion of his men by his harshness, they mutinied and ran the ship into a French harbor. In 1797 he commanded the Director at Cemperdown, when Admiral Duncan defeated the Dutch Ad miral De Winter; the same year he distin guished himself by his fearlessness at the mutiny at the Nore. In 1801, as commander of the (Hat ton. at Copenhagen, he was personally thanked by Nelson. In 1808 Bligh was appointed Cover nor of New South Wales; hut in his prohibition of the unlimited importation of ardent spirits his conduct was so tyrannical that the military officer of the colony summarily arrested and kept him imprisoned for over two years. The officer, Major Johnson, was subsequently cashiered. Bligh, on returning to England, was made rear admiral in NIL and vice-admiral in 1814. Ile died December 7, 1817. For narrative, consult Bligh, The Mutiny of the Bounty, (Philadelphia, 1790).