if you were on the Bounty what would you have done?

me as the person am I am in year 2013 from the up bringing I am?

I would of stayed with the Captain as that's what I signed up for.

now..

if I was an uneducated seaman , probably a hard ass, boozer, in and out of brothels and pubs and spending my wages on grogs , gambling and getting laid
swearing and doing petty crimes. No family to speak of, well maybe some children I don't even know, or probably care about.
went to the islands, beautiful women, exotic, great weather, nothing back in England accept orders and mistretment and I am never gonna get a promotion on a ship anyway, I would probably stick it out with Christian, I would be down for the adventure. but once I got to Pitcairns islands and we burnt the boat and I would no we are never leaving, I would know I made the wrong choice.
I would of gone to tahiti, but the king didn't want us there, plus we were bringing diseases and killing locals off, and I am sure local men wouldn't of thought to much of us anyway, and the british navy would of easily find us and killed us.
I'd like to think I was smart enough to know , it was a dead sentence to go with Christian and I would of stayed loyal to the captain so I can go on another job when we get back.

I don't know why Christian and the few others wanted to mutiny!
why didn't they just endure a couple months more , and then arrive in England, collect their pay packets, and organize a ship to head back there?

was complete madness!

In hindsight, it just seems like the mutiny was not very well thought out. The best thing that could have happened was a choice not to mutiny, get back to England, and find passage back to Tahiti somehow. I guess that wouldn't be very likely to find a voyage back though, but maybe not impossible?

The answer's quite easy at a basic level:

I'd stick with Bligh. He had the most to offer: stability, knowledge, a fighting chance. What did Fletcher offer? Easy women? That lasted for all of 15 minutes once he ran his trap and alienated the king they couldn't stay there anymore. After that they were run off and were cowards without a home. Churchill and the younger kid had more guts than the rest did by staying there and risking it.

I can see why someone would rebel though. In those days you were either fourtanate or you were not; there was no in between. Most people were poor and were more than likely forced on the sea. If you had loved ones at home you would be compelled to return but if you didn't you would say what the hell I'll do it and I think anyone would. Fletcher's issue was he trusted the wrong people. In the movie he had a shot over them until Churchill stayed behind on Tahiti. Once that happened he became Bligh 2.0 and had an awful time. If Fletcher had thought it over better he woulda made it out and done alright.

When push comes to shove Bligh was right and he was trying to save Fletcher. The bit about the girl not fitting in was 100% true she never would have lasted in England and I think Fletcher knew that however it was too late as he knocked her up. If Bligh had been more commanding once they hit Tahiti it woulda worked out; not allowing them to give into lust woulda done wonders. Fletcher easily coulda got home and found a way to get ahold of a ship and a crew. He coulda pretended he was going to the USA even and he coulda got a ship and crew to take over to Tahiti and resume things.

I wouldn't have participated in the mutiny. But if the mutiny had already happened and I was given a choice between staying with the mutineers and getting on the little lifeboat with Bligh, I'd probably have stayed with the mutineers. You have no idea how unlikely it was for Bligh and his crew to have made it to a safe harbor a thousand miles away, the odds were 99 to 1 that they would have died at sea, and a it would have horrible lingering death from heat, thirst, and starvation at that. Which would have been made worse by the fact that Bligh didn't give a rat's ass how much his seamen suffered, in the cause of what he thought to be right.

That said, I'd also have done my best to separate myself from the mutineers as soon as I could, they were horrible people and ended up mostly killing each other off. If the natives wouldn't let me stay on some remote part of Tahiti I'd have done my best to get to another island, where I'd pretend to be a whaler from some shipwrecked s from a part of Canada that nobody had ever heard of.


Honestly, once the mutiny happened, it was really a no-win situation for the regular guys on the crew.

I wouldn't have been an idiot and lost my head over a pair of savage tits. Like the Captain said, you'd think they never saw a woman before.

Gone in the launch if possible you don't want to be with mutineers even the seamen who Bligh himself said were innocent were locked up with the mutineers on the Pandora. if forced to stay on the Bounty like previous poster try to distance yourself enough from the mutineers once on Tahiti maybe even get a small boat try to get as far away from them as possible

I would have stayed loyal. I understand the mutineers point of view, but being one hired to do a job, I'd see it through. Either way, this would be a terrible situation.