Happy Birthday!

Admiral William Bligh

born 9/9/1754
(d.Dec 7, 1817)

          Bounty was a packet ship,
                  Pump ship, packet ship!
          Sailing on a cruising trip,
                  In the South Pacific!
  
          Billy Blight, that silly man,
                  Pump ship, packet ship!
          Was the master in command.
                  In the South Pacific!
  
                  "The Packet Ship," Songs of the Sea; Terry Kinsey; 1989

The song is presumed to date from between 1789 (the mutiny) and 1809 (survivors found).

Bligh suffered three mutinies altogether and a bad press. His main flaw seemed to be a slight toadyism that led to rotten choices in whom he hired. He was certainly one of the world's great sailors and a keen observer of anthropological data. Further, he had a fine ability to communicate with (and learn the language of) the natives he encountered. This compares impressively with the feller who had the good press, and Bligh's idol, Cook. Seems Cook was so arrogant and insensitive that he got himself killed and eaten for it. According to King David Kalakaua of Hawaii, the final straw was when it got proven Cook wasn't a god, after all, and thus had no right to steal things. (If only we, today, were wise enough to take serious umbrage when our Great Ones bite themselves in the ass.)

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
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