1789 by David Andress

Author:David Andress
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780374100131
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Bounty stayed at Tahiti for five months, far longer than originally planned, as the delay of the failed rounding of the Horn meant it now had to ride out the stormy season before departing. In those five months the crew showed the same porous willingness to blend with ‘Indian’ life as had the young men of the East India Company. Much of that porosity was due, as elsewhere, to sexual liaisons. The Tahitian women were everything that sailors’ legend already said them to be – golden-skinned, beautiful (especially to bandy-legged, pock-marked Britons with nothing but themselves to stare at for months) and both sexually available and experienced in ways little short of a dream come true. As Bligh put it, ‘Even the mouths of Women are not exempt from the polution [sic], and many other as uncommon ways have they of gratifying their beastly inclinations.’39 The delights of Tahitian culture sucked the men in, and most soon found themselves welcomed by local chiefs and other heads of households, who became their taios, hosts and guardians. The fact that the British could supply them with items, especially metals, in short supply in Polynesia was at the root of this exuberant welcome, no doubt, but, as elsewhere, it drew them into local life. Many soon exhibited tattoos, an art form of the region first brought to European attention by Cook’s voyages. Some stuck to mottos and heraldic emblems, but others went further in accepting the Tahitians’ notion of proper tattooing. An eligible bachelor had to have his entire buttocks blackened with tattoo – a long and painful process. Among several who endured this for the sake of their welcome was Fletcher Christian.40

Christian’s position on the voyage had always been an odd one, for he was rather a liminal figure. His family was old and once well-todo, but had slipped into such impoverishment through living beyond their means that relatives had had to club together to save his widowed mother from debts of over £6000 in 1779, and she had moved to the Isle of Man, where outside courts’ writs did not run, to be free from further legal threats. Fletcher, a younger son, had to make his own way, and after an uncertain start had entered the navy as a midshipman at the uncommonly advanced age of eighteen in 1783. He spent over two years aboard the frigate HMS Eurydice, much of it on a cruise to the East Indies. During this time he proved his worth, and was raised to master’s mate, the traditional holding position for a young gentleman who had not yet gained a lieutenant’s commission but might be expected to do so. On his return from the voyage he, like Bligh, found himself unemployed, and family contacts advised him to seek out the latter, in his new role as a merchant captain. Christian must have impressed by his enthusiasm, as his offer to serve as a common seaman, given a lack of officer berths, was taken up

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