Captain Bligh: Myth, Man, Mutiny

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Captain Bligh exhibit in Falmouth

You may have seen the recent TV commercials for Chanel 4's reenactment of the famous Mutiny on the Bounty. Head to Falmouth and you can see an exhibition all about the Cornish born Captain Bligh and his impossible voyage.

For those who don't know, Lieutenant William Bligh was the commanding officer aboard the HM Bounty in the Pacific and he was cast a float by a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian in April 1789. Bligh and his men were left to die in a 23-foot boat. He managed to sail across 3600 nautical miles of treacherous water from Tonga to Timor in a remarkable survival story.

Building the boat Captain Bligh was cast adrift on at a new exhibition in Falmouth 2017

The National Maritime Museum in Falmouth hosts this exhibition, running from the 17 March - 31 December 2017. You can see some original artefacts, like Bligh's coconut bowl, bullet-weight, horn-beaker and magnifying glass used to light fires. There is also a reproduction of the boat the 19 men squeezed into!

This story has been passed down, twisted and romanticised, and the exhibition hopes to bring it alive and challenge the myth made famous by the likes of Clark Gable in the 1935 Hollywood film as well as Marlon Brando, Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins.

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