Monday 29 June 2020

Special Guest Blogger: Captain William Bligh

My crew did have some sore misgivings about my poop-deck on the HMS Bounty but i just told them to put some talc on it and off we went but anyone who has read the book or seen one of the several films made about that trip will know, it didn't go particularly well for me.
I have been painted as some sort of bully but i just did what all ship captains did back then, work the crew half to death and have them flogged if they didn't do what i said but to be fair flogging the crew is pretty much page one on the 18th Century British navy guide to being a Captain.
The simple truth is that i was considerably less flog-happy than my peers but sailing a ship around the World is miserable, it took months to sail to Tahiti and once we got there, it was a sunny paradise with beautiful beaches and even more beautiful women and we had to stay there for five months waiting for some banana plants to grow.
So the crew had plenty of time lazing in the sun, getting wasted and getting it on with the natives and then i come along and go okay crew, put down the luscious women and fruit and back on the ship for a 6 month sailing back to Blighty and scrubbing decks and getting flogged and trying to not die of scurvy and they went 'F*** that' and dumped me overboard, and went steaming back for more sweet Tahitian tushy.
They probably didn't expect me to survuve let alone navigate the crappy raft they set me adrift on 4,000 miles back to civilization but somehow after all that, i become known as the bad guy.

No comments: