Fletcher Christian

Fletcher Christian served as master’s mate on HMS Bounty during William Bligh’s breadfruit expedition to Tahiti. On 28 April 1789 he led mutineers who seized the vessel and forced Bligh and loyal crew members into an open launch.

Christian eventually sailed with a smaller group to Pitcairn Island, where the settlers attempted to avoid discovery. His death is generally placed during violent conflict on the island in the early 1790s. In John Boyne’s Mutiny on the Bounty, he is viewed through a fictional young sailor rather than given an authoritative inner account.