Fletcher Christian(25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was an English sailor who led themutiny on theBountyin 1789, during which he seized command of theRoyal NavyvesselHMSBountyfromLieutenantWilliam Bligh.
Fletcher Christian | |
|---|---|
 Christian depicted in a painting byRobert Dodd,1790 | |
| Born | 25 September 1764 Moorland Close,Eaglesfield,Cumberland, England |
| Died | Uncertain, probably 20 September 1793(aged 28) Uncertain, probablyPitcairn Island |
| Occupation | Master's Mate |
| Spouse | Mauatua 'Isabella' Christian |
| Children | Thursday October Christian I Charles Christian Mary Ann Christian |
| Parent(s) | Charles Christian Ann Dixon |
| Relatives | Edward Christian(brother) Edmund Law(uncle) The 1st Baron Ellenborough(cousin) George Henry Law(cousin) Thomas Law(cousin) Elizabeth Parke Custis Law(cousin-in-law) |
In 1787, Christian was appointedmaster's mateonBounty,tasked with transportingbreadfruitplants fromTahitito theWest Indies.Bligh subsequently named him acting-Lieutenant during the voyage. After a five-monthlayoverin Tahiti, relations between Bligh and his crew deteriorated and in April 1789, Christian led a mutiny and forced Bligh from the ship. Some of the mutineers were left on Tahiti, while Christian, eight other mutineers, six Tahitian men and eleven Tahitian women settled on isolatedPitcairn Island,where they stripped and burned the vessel.
Christian died on Pitcairn, possibly killed in a conflict with Tahitians. His group were not found until 1808 and the sole surviving mutineer,John Adams,gave conflicting accounts of Christian's death.
Early life
editChristian was born on 25 September 1764, at his family home of Moorland Close,Eaglesfield,nearCockermouthinCumberland,England. Fletcher's father's side had originated from theIsle of Manand most of his paternal great-grandfathers were historicDeemsters,their original family surname McCrystyn.
Fletcher and his brothersEdwardand Humphrey were the three sons of Charles Christian, anattorney-at-lawdescended fromManxgentry, and his wife Ann Dixon. Charles was heir of Moorland Close and of the largeEwanrigg Hallestate on the outskirts ofMaryport,Cumberland.[1]
Charles's marriage to Ann brought with it the small property of Moorland Close, "a quadrangle pile of buildings... half castle, half farmstead." The property can be seen to the north of the Cockermouth to Egremont A5086 road.[2]Charles died in 1768 when Fletcher was not yet four. Ann proved herself grossly irresponsible with money. By 1779, when Fletcher was fifteen, Ann had run up a debt of nearly £6,500 (equal to £1,103,433 today),[2]and faced the prospect ofdebtors' prison.Moorland Close was lost and Ann and her three younger children were forced to flee to the Isle of Man, to their relative's estate, where English creditors had no power.
The three elder Christian sons managed to arrange a £40 (equal to £6,790 today) per year annuity for their mother, allowing the family to live in genteel poverty. Christian spent seven years at the Cockermouth Free School from the age of nine. One of his younger contemporaries there was Cockermouth nativeWilliam Wordsworth.It is commonly suggested that the two were "school friends"; in fact, Christian was six years older than Wordsworth. His mother Ann died on the Isle of Man in 1819.[3]
Naval career
edit- Seeherefor a comparison of assignments to William Bligh
Fletcher Christian began his naval career at a late age, joining theRoyal Navyas acabin boywhen he was already seventeen years old (the average age for this position was between 12 and 15). He served for over a year on athird-rateship-of-the-linealong with his future commander, William Bligh, who was posted as the ship's sixth lieutenant.[4]Christian next became amidshipmanon thesixth-ratepost shipHMSEurydiceand was madeMaster's Matesix months after the ship put to sea. The muster rolls ofHMSEurydiceindicate Christian was signed on for a 21-month voyage to India. The ship's muster shows Christian's conduct was more than satisfactory because "some seven months out from England, he had been promoted from midshipman to master's mate".[5]
AfterEurydicehad returned fromIndia,Christian was reverted to midshipman and paid off from the Royal Navy.[4]Unable to find another midshipman assignment, Christian decided to join the British merchant fleet and applied for a berth on board William Bligh's shipBritannia.Bligh had himself been discharged from the Royal Navy and was now a merchant captain. Bligh accepted Christian on the ship's books as anable seaman,but granted him all the rights of a ship's officer including dining and berthing in the officer quarters. On a second voyage toJamaicawith Bligh, Christian was rated as the ship'sSecond Mate.[4]
In 1787 Bligh approached Christian to serve on board HMAVBountyfor a two-year voyage to transportbreadfruitfrom Tahiti to the West Indies. Bligh originally had every intention of Christian serving as the ship'sMaster,but theNavy Boardturned down this request due to Christian's low seniority in service years and appointedJohn Fryerinstead. Christian was retained as Master's Mate. The following year, halfway through the Bounty's voyage, Bligh appointed Christian as acting lieutenant, thus making him senior to Fryer.
On 28 April 1789, Fletcher Christian led a mutiny on board theBountyand from this point forward was considered an outlaw.[6]He was formally stripped of his naval rank in March 1790 and discharged after Bligh returned to England and reported the mutiny to theAdmiralty Board.
| Date | Rank | Ship (number of guns) |
|---|---|---|
| March 1782 | Ship's boy | HMSCambridge(80) |
| 25 April 1783 | Midshipman | HMSEurydice(24) |
| 24 May 1784 | Master's Mate | |
| June 1785 | Discharged and paid off from Royal Navy | |
| 1786 | Able seaman | Merchant VesselBritannia |
| Second Mate | ||
| September 1787 | Master's mate | HM Armed VesselBounty |
| 2 March 1788 | Acting lieutenant | |
| 28 April 1789 | Mutiny on the Bounty | |
| March 1790 | Stripped of Naval rank and discharged in absentia | |
Mutiny on theBounty
edit
In 1787, Christian was appointedmaster's mateonBounty,on Bligh's recommendation, for the ship'sbreadfruitexpedition toTahiti.During the voyage out, Bligh appointed him acting lieutenant.Bountyarrived at Tahiti on 26 October 1788 and Christian spent the next five months there.
Bountyset sail with its cargo of breadfruit plantings on 4 April 1789. Some 1,300 miles west of Tahiti, nearTonga,mutiny broke out on 28 April 1789, led by Christian. According to accounts, the sailors were attracted to the "idyllic" life and sexual opportunities afforded on the Pacific island ofTahiti.Following the court-martial of captured mutineers,Edward Christianargued that they were motivated by Bligh's allegedly harsh treatment of them.[7]Eighteen mutineers set Bligh afloat in a small boat with eighteen of the twenty-two crew loyal to him.
Following the mutiny, Christian first travelled to Tahiti, where he marriedMaimiti,the daughter of one of the local chiefs.[8]He then attempted to build a colony onTubuai,but there the mutineers came into conflict with natives. Abandoning the island, he stopped briefly in Tahiti again, and dropped off sixteen crewmen. These sixteen included four Bligh loyalists who had been left behind onBountyand two who had neither participated in, nor resisted, the mutiny. The remaining nine mutineers, six Tahitian men and eleven Tahitian women, then sailed eastward. In time, they landed onPitcairn Island,where they strippedBountyof all that could be floated ashore beforeMatthew Quintalset it on fire, stranding them. The resulting sexual imbalance, combined with the effective enslavement of the Tahitian men by the mutineers, led to insurrection and the deaths of most of the men.[7][9]: 369
Death
editThe American seal-hunting shipTopazvisited Pitcairn in 1808 and found only one mutineer,John Adams(who had used the alias Alexander Smith while onBounty), still alive along with nine Tahitian women. The mutineers who had perished had, however, already had children with their Tahitian wives. Most of these children were still living. Adams and Maimiti claimed Christian had been murdered during the conflict between the Tahitian men and the mutineers. According to an account by a Pitcairn woman named Jenny who left the island in 1817, Christian was shot while working by a pond next to the home of his pregnant wife. Along with Christian, four other mutineers and all six of the Tahitian men who had come to the island were killed in the conflict.[10]William McCoy,one of the four surviving mutineers, fell off a cliff while intoxicated and was killed. Quintal was later killed by the remaining two mutineers, Adams andNed Young,after he attacked them. Young became the new leader of Pitcairn.
John Adams gave conflicting accounts of Christian's death to visitors on ships that subsequently visited Pitcairn. He was variously said to have died of natural causes, committed suicide, become insane or been murdered.[11]
Christian was survived by Maimiti and his son,Thursday October Christian(born 1790). Besides Thursday October, Fletcher Christian also had a younger son named Charles Christian (born 1792) and a daughter Mary Ann Christian (born 1793). Thursday and Charles are the ancestors of almost everybody with the surname Christian onPitcairnandNorfolkIslands, as well as the many descendants who have moved to Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
Rumours have persisted for more than two hundred years that Christian's murder was faked, that he had left the island and that he made his way back to England.[12]Many scholars believe that the rumours of Christian returning to England helped to inspireSamuel Taylor Coleridge'sThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner.[13]
There is no portrait or drawing extant of Fletcher Christian that was drawn from life. Bligh described Christian as "5 ft. 9 in. high [175 cm]. blackish or very dark complexion. Hair – Blackish or very dark brown. Make – Strong. A star tatowed [sic] on his left breast, and tatowed [sic] on the backside. His knees stand a little out and he may be called a little bow legged. He is subject to violent perspiration, particularly in his hand, so that he soils anything he handles ".[14]
In film and fiction
editAppearances in literature
editChristian's principal literary appearances are in the treatments ofBountystory, includingMutiny on the Bounty(1932),Pitcairn's Island(1934) andAfter the Bounty(an edited version ofJames Morrison's journal, 2009). He also appears inR. M. Ballantyne'sThe Lonely Island; or, The Refuge of the Mutineers(1880) and inCharles Dickens'The Long Voyage(1853).
Stanley Miller's 1973 novelMr. Christian!posited that Christian knew nothing of the mutiny until it had been completely organized and he was offered the choice of being shot along with Bligh or taking command of the ship and the mutineers.[15]InPeter F. Hamilton'sNight's Dawntrilogy, Fletcher Christian's ghost appears, possessing a human body, and helps two non-possessed girls escape.[16]William Kinsolving's 1996 novelMister ChristianandVal McDermid's 2006 thrillerThe Grave Tattooare both based on Christian's rumoured return to theLake Districtand the fact that he was at school withWilliam Wordsworth.Dan L. Thrapp's 2002 novelMutiny's Curseis based on a similar premise. In 1959Louis MacNeiceproduced a BBC Radio play calledI Call Me Adam,written byLaurie Lee,about the mutineers' lives on Pitcairn.[17]
Film portrayals
edit
Christian is portrayed by:
- Wilton Powers (1916)The Mutiny of the Bounty
- Errol Flynn(1933)In the Wake of the Bounty
- Clark Gable(1935)Mutiny on the Bounty
- Marlon Brando(1962)Mutiny on the Bounty
- Mel Gibson(1984)The Bounty
The 1935 and 1962 films are based on the 1932 novelMutiny on the Bountyin which Christian is a major character and is generally portrayed positively. The authors of that novel,Charles NordhoffandJames Norman Hall,also wrote two sequels, one of which,Pitcairn's Island,is the story of the tragic events after the mutiny that apparently resulted in Christian's death along with other violent deaths onPitcairn Island.(The other sequel,Men Against the Sea,is the story of Bligh's voyage after the mutiny.) This series of novels uses fictionalised versions of minor crew members as narrators of the stories. The 1984 film offers a less sympathetic image of Christian.
Musical portrayals
edit- Four Jacks"The Story of Bounty" (1962)[18]
- The Rolling Stones"Dancing in the Light" (1972)[19]
- David EssexinMutiny!(1985)
- Mekons"(Sometimes I Feel Like) Fletcher Christian" fromSo Good It Hurts(Sin Record Company/Cooking Vinyl, Rough Trade Records Germany) (1988)
- Rasputina"Cage in a Cave", fromOh Perilous World(Filthy Bonnet) (2007)
See also
edit
- Garth Christian– a relative
- Descendants of the Bounty mutineers–Thomas Colman Christian,who died 7 July 2013.
References
editNotes
- ^Glynn Christian,Fragile Paradise: The discovery of Fletcher Christian, Bounty mutineer;2nd ed. (US: Bounty Books, 2005), p. 11.
- ^abAnderson.The Bounty.p. 60.
- ^Hough.Captain Bligh and Mister Christian.p. 56.
- ^abc"Bounty's Crew Encyclopedia".Pitcairn Islands Study Center.Retrieved20 December2022.
- ^Anderson.The Bounty.p. 57.
- ^Harrison Christian (11 July 2021)."Men Without Country: The true story of exploration and rebellion in the South Seas".Stuff.Retrieved20 December2022.
- ^abChristian, Harrison (2021).Men Without Country.Sydney: Ultimo Press. p. 280.ISBN9781761150050.
- ^"Pitcairn Islands Study Center".Pacific Union College Library.1 October 2021. Archived fromthe originalon 1 October 2021.Retrieved28 November2021.
- ^Alexander, Caroline(2003).The Bounty.London: Harper Collins.ISBN978-0-00-257221-7.
- ^"A mutiny and a mystery".Australian National Maritime Museum.Retrieved28 April2021.
- ^Alexander, C. (2003) pp. 359–360
- ^The poetRobert Southeyreported in correspondence a sighting of Christian in England in about 1803. Curry, K. (ed)(1965)New Letters of Robert Southey,vol. 1, pp 519ff, cited in Alexander, C. (2003), p.405
- ^Williams; Oakeshott.The Cambridge Journal.p. 190.
- ^"Bounty's Crew Encyclopedia, Christian, Fletcher".Pitcairn Island Study Center (PISC).
The text on the PISC website is used with permission fromMutiny and Romance in the South Seas: A Companion to the Bounty Adventureby Sven Wahlroos.
- ^Blitz, J. Kinner (28 December 1973)."Novel Retraces Bounty Mutiny".The Pittsburgh Press.No. 185, Vol. 90.Retrieved27 May2024.
- ^Hamilton (1997).The Neutronium Alchemist.Warner Books.ISBN9780446605465.
- ^Lee, Laurie;Mack, Jane (2003). "Introduction".Three Plays.Cheltenham: The Cyder Press. pp. xii–xv.ISBN978-1861741370.
- ^"The Story of Bounty".YouTube.
- ^"Dancing in the Light".YouTube.
Bibliography
- Hamilton (1997).The Neutronium Alchemist.Warner Books.ISBN9780446605465.
- Alexander, Caroline (2003).The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty.New York: Viking.ISBN978-0-670-03133-7.
- Hough, Richard (1973).Captain Bligh and Mister Christian: The Men and the Mutiny.New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.ISBN978-0-525-07310-9.
- Williams, T.F.D.; Oakeshott, M. (1954).The Cambridge Journal.London: Bowes and Bowes.
Further reading
- Christian, Glynn (2005).Fragile Paradise: the Discovery of Fletcher Christian, Bounty Mutineer.Classic Travel Books, Long Riders' Guild Press.ISBN978-1-59048-250-6.
- Christian, Harrison(2021).Men Without Country: The true story of exploration and rebellion in the South Seas.Ultimo Press. 2021.ISBN9781761150258.
- Conway, Christiane (2005).Letters from the Isle of Man – The Bounty – Correspondence of Nessy and Peter Heywood.The Manx Experience.ISBN1-873120-77-X.
External links
edit- General information
- Genealogical information
The following genealogical information about Fletcher Christian and the otherBountycrew members comes from descendants of theBountycrew, who may not be reliable and from historical archives.
- HMS Bounty Ancestors and Cousins
- George Snell's HMSBountyDescendants Page
- Norfolk Island Research and Genealogy Centre
- Related information
- Fletcher Christian's biography,PISC Crew Encyclopedia
- Pitcairn Islands Study Centre(PISC)