Fletcher Christian was an English sailor who led the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, during which he seized command of the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty from Lieutenant William Bligh.
Fletcher Christian's house
Postage stamp, UK issue for Pitcairn Islands (1940) showing King George VI and an artist's interpretation of Fletcher Christian
A view of Pitcairn's Island, South Seas, 1814, by J. Shillibeer
Fletcher Christian's son Thursday October Christian in 1814 at the age of 24, by J. Shillibeer
The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The reasons behind the mutiny are still debated. Bligh and his crew stopped for supplies on Tofua, losing a man to natives. Bligh navigated more than 3,500 nautical miles in the launch to reach safety and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island.
Fletcher Christian and the mutineers set Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 others adrift, depicted in a 1790 aquatint by Robert Dodd
A 1960 reconstruction of HMS Bounty
Lieutenant William Bligh, captain of HMS Bounty
Matavai Bay in Tahiti, depicted in a 1776 painting by William Hodges
