![]() ![]() Christian tries to end Byam's cruel punishment by calling him down, but Bligh immediately sends him back. Once at sea, Byam is severly punished by Bligh after he and another seaman are caught engaging in a minor fistfight, and is ordered to stand perched on top of the masthead during a storm. Later, Bligh, who respects only one law, the "law of fear," and tolerates no dissent among his crew, upbraids Christian when he complains about the ship's indecent food supply. Although the master-at-arms pronounces the court-martialed seaman dead as he approaches the Bounty, Bligh insists that he proceed with the flogging. Soon after boarding his ship, William Bligh, the Bounty's sadistic captain, orders his crew to witness a "flogging through the fleet," a brutal form of punishment in which court-martialed seamen are flogged in view of every ship in the fleet. When Christian learns of Ellison's attempted desertion, he reasons with Ellison and gently persuades him to return and serve his country. As the ship is about to set sail, Ellison, who does not want to leave his wife and child, is caught trying to break ship. Roger Byam, a descendent of a long line of decorated naval officers, is made a midshipman on the Bounty and is commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks to help him research his Tahitian dictionary. Before sailing, a press gang headed by Fletcher Christian, the ship's lieutenant, strongarms Thomas Ellison, William Muspratt, Quintal and others into the King's Navy for the two-year voyage. Bounty to Tahiti, where her crew will collect breadfruit trees and import them as a cheap source of food for slave camps in the West Indies. In Portsmouth Harbour, England, in December of 1787, preparations are made to sail the H.M.S. ![]()
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