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. Christian’s seizure of the Bounty and settlement on Pitcairn made him a central and contested figure in the history and mythology of Pacific exploration.

In John Boyne’s Mutiny on the Bounty, After Fletcher Christian leads the mutiny in April 1789, Turnstile remains with Bligh and the men cast adrift in the ship’s launch.