SEM-EDS of Artifacts from the HMAV Bounty Discovered at Pitcairn Island

Abstract

In 1787, West India Merchantmen asked the English Government for an expedition to collect Bread Fruit and introduce it to West Indies. The Government assigned Sir Joseph Banks to organize it and Lieutenant William Bligh as Captain. The former Bethia [1], was purchased, renamed Bounty and refitted at Deptford including addition of copper sheathing and nails and a lead-lining for the former Captain’s cabin for the breadfruit plants she would be acquiring. She was provisioned, manned, and set sail from Spithead on December 23, 1787. On April 28, 1788, after leaving Tahiti, First Mate Fletcher Christian and some of the crew mutinied taking the ship by force [2]. The ship, a few of the mutineers and some passengers from Tahiti arrived at Pitcairn Island in January 1790 where the Bounty was burned and scuttled some years later. [3]