PublishedUltimo Press, March 2022 |
ISBN9781761150456 |
FormatSoftcover, 320 pages |
Dimensions19.8cm × 12.8cm |
What joy to be at sea again, adrift on the vast Pacific, in the clutches of a gifted storyteller. Harrison Christian and the mutineers of Men Without Country held me happily captive to the very last page. Dava Sobel, author of LongitudeA mission to collect breadfruit from Tahiti becomes the most famous mutiny in history when the crew rise up against Captain William Bligh, with accusations of food restrictions and unfair punishments.
Blighs remarkable journey back to safety is well documented, but the fates of the mutinous men remain shrouded in mystery. Some settled in Tahiti only to face capture and court martial, others sailed on to form a secret colony on Pitcairn Island, the most remote inhabited island on earth, avoiding detection for twenty years. When an American captain stumbled across the island in 1808, only one of the Bounty mutineers was left alive. Told by a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, Men Without Country provides a comprehensive and compelling account of the whole story from the history of trade and exploration in the South Seas to Pitcairn Island, which provided the mutineers salvation, and then became their grave.