The Frigate “Bounty” in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary fragments · Year: 1788 · Authors: William Bligh

It is relatively little known that the frigate Bounty , famous for its mutiny which has been reflected in multiple accounts and several film versions, called at the port of Santa Cruz between 6 and 10 January 1788. It was here on a stopover during its voyage to Tahiti, where it was headed with the intention of transporting breadfruit plants from that Pacific island to the British West Indies, to serve as food for the slaves on the plantations of Jamaica and other English colonies in the Caribbean that were then suffering periodic famines.

The Bounty sailed from Spithead, southern England, on 23 December 1787 with forty-five men on board, two of them gardeners, all under the orders of Lieutenant William Bligh. A few days into the voyage, the ship suffered the harsh conditions of a terrible storm, which made it take harbour in Santa Cruz to repair damage and obtain refreshments. 

William Bligh, who had already been almost twelve years earlier in the port of Santa Cruz embarked on the third voyage of the great navigator James Cook to the Pacific, left some brief impressions of the port of Tenerife, now as the person in charge of an expedition. He saw Santa Cruz in that winter of 1788 “… regularly built..." and with "...houses generally spacious and airy, although the streets are very badly paved ”. But where he showed his greatest interest was in the Hospicio de San Carlos, inaugurated three years earlier, of which he highlights:

“ I had the honour that His Excellency [the Marquis of Branciforte] showed me the asylum, they call it Hospicio, built on a large expanse of land, with room for 120 poor girls and as many poor boys who appeared to have a cheerful countenance. This institution represented a most commendable effort.

In a spacious room, young women and girls, with decent and neat clothing, admirably organised their spinning wheels and looms. A governess inspected and coordinated all their work making coloured silk ribbons and warm clothes made of linen, even the dyeing of the garments was done by them. The young men and boys were engaged in the more laborious tasks, such as bleaching garments made of common wool; there was also an inspector who helped them in everything necessary.

The Governor visits them every day while a clergyman attends to them at night. In case of illness, they receive all kinds of help and care for the rest of their days. The length of stay for those admitted, according to the statutes, was limited to five years, after which they could marry or become independent by practising the learned trade.

Thanks to this humane institution, a good number of people become useful and industrious in a country where the poor, due to the indulgence of the climate, are too prone to prefer a life of inactivity. I must highlight that the raw materials were donated by the merchants of Santa Cruz, and the expenses for food were covered by alms and donations.

After we had finished our business in Tenerife, on Thursday 10 January, with our ship in good health, with spirits on board, and a dozen stone funnels (water distillers), we set sail with a southeast wind. ”

The frigate HMS Bounty left Santa Cruz behind and continued its voyage to the Pacific. After ten months of sailing, it finally arrived at Tahiti on 25 October 1788. There the expedition stayed a little over five months, enough time to, besides settling in that tropical paradise, cultivate, harvest and subsequently embark a thousand breadfruit plants destined for the West Indies. As is well known, the frigate never completed its return journey. 

In the early hours of 28 April 1789, still near the Tonga archipelago on the return voyage, Fletcher Christian, the deputy officer, took control of the Bounty after a mutiny. The mutineers put William Bligh in a small boat along with 18 other crew members, a sextant, some barrels of water and little food, abandoning them in the middle of the ocean. Incredibly, Bligh and his companions managed to survive after forty-one days of crossing in a small boat. They covered about 3,600 miles (around 6,700 km), miraculously reaching the island of Timor in the Moluccas. 

As for the mutineers of the Bounty , they had returned to their paradise of Tahiti. There fifteen disembarked; the remaining nine, along with about twenty natives (six men and the rest women, one of them with a baby), took refuge on the lost and uninhabited island of Pitcairn. They landed there on 15 January 1790, founding a small colony isolated from the world for decades. In complete isolation (the Bounty had been dismantled to build cabins with the wood from its hull), Christian and the mutineers died in various conflicts arising among the Europeans themselves or at the hands of the Tahitians, probably due to possession of women and the division of the island's lands. Their descendants continue to live on Pitcairn today.

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