William Bligh - A Voyage to the South Sea: The Mutiny on the Bounty - First Edition, 1792

BLIGH, William.
A Voyage to the South Sea, Undertaken by Command of His Majesty, for the Purpose of Conveying the Bread-Fruit Tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty’s Ship the Bounty; Including an Account of the Mutiny on Board the Said Ship, and the Subsequent Voyage of Part of the Crew, in the Ship’s Boat, from Tofoa to Timor.

London: Printed for George Nicol, Bookseller to His Majesty, Pall-Mall, 1792.

First edition of the full official account of the voyage of HMS Bounty, the mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, and William Bligh’s extraordinary open-boat voyage to Timor. With an additional eighteenth-century engraved chart of Pitcairn Island, the eventual refuge of the mutineers.

Quarto. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Captain William Bligh by J. Condé after John Russell; illustrated with seven further engraved plates, charts and plans, including folding material: the plan and section of the Bounty showing the arrangements made for transporting breadfruit plants, the plan of the ship’s launch, the plate of the breadfruit tree and the charts relating to the voyage.

Bligh’s A Voyage to the South Sea is the first full published account of the expedition that gave rise to the most celebrated mutiny in maritime history. HMS Bounty sailed for Tahiti with the Admiralty-backed purpose of gathering breadfruit plants for transplantation to the West Indies. After months spent at Tahiti, the ship departed with its living cargo; on 28 April 1789, near the Friendly Islands, Fletcher Christian and his supporters seized control of the vessel and forced Bligh and eighteen loyal men into the ship’s launch.

The ordeal that followed established Bligh’s reputation as a navigator. With severely limited provisions and no chart adequate to the whole journey, he brought the crowded open boat across thousands of miles of ocean to Timor. His account is at once an official defence of his command, a major Pacific voyage narrative and one of the central books in the history of maritime survival.

The work had been preceded in 1790 by Bligh’s shorter Narrative of the Mutiny. The present volume gives the full account of the expedition, incorporating a revised version of the mutiny narrative. The text was prepared from Bligh’s journal by Captain James Burney under the supervision of Sir Joseph Banks while Bligh was absent on his second breadfruit voyage.

Of particular appeal in this copy is the accompanying loose engraved plate, “A Chart and Views of Pitcairn’s Island,” originally issued with Hawkesworth’s account of Captain Philip Carteret’s discovery of the island in 1767. Pitcairn later became inseparable from the Bounty story: in 1790 Fletcher Christian and the remaining mutineers reached the island and established the remote settlement in which they hoped to evade discovery. The presence of this contemporary chart gives the volume a compelling visual connection with the final chapter of the mutineers’ flight.

Binding and Condition

Bound in period half calf over marbled boards, the spine simply ruled in gilt and lettered “Bligh’s Voyage” in gilt. Housed in a later fitted brown leather solander box, the spine lettered in gilt “Bligh’s Voyage to the South Sea.”

Binding rubbed and worn, with scuffing to the marbled boards and wear at the spine ends and joints, but remaining sound and attractive in character. Internally with foxing and some staining, particularly to the portrait frontispiece and title-page opening, together with occasional offsetting and age-toning to the folding plates and charts. The engraved material remains striking, especially the plan of the Bounty fitted for the breadfruit plants. The accompanying Pitcairn chart shows some staining and handling wear, but presents strongly.

A highly desirable first edition of Bligh’s complete account of the Bounty expedition and mutiny, enhanced by the additional contemporary engraved chart of Pitcairn Island and preserved in a fitted leather box. An important book for a collection of maritime history, Pacific exploration, naval voyages, Tahiti, Pitcairn Island or the history of HMS Bounty.

References: Ferguson 125; Hill 135; Sabin 5910; Wantrup 62a.