Location: Upper Deck

  The Ship

Frequently, HMAT (His/Her Majesty’s Armed Transport) Bounty is identified by the designation HMS, which it is not. Bounty, ex Bethia, was a small British collier purchased for naval service as an armed transport, hence the HMAT. She measured 91 feet on deck, was rated 215 tons and was modified to accommodate 1,000 breadfruit plants to be gathered in Tahiti for introduction in the West Indies as a food staple.

HMAT Bounty cleared Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, for Tahiti on  December 28, 1787 with a crew of 25, only 13 of whom were able seamen.  Foul weather deviled the passage and force Lieutenant William Bligh to abandon doubling Cape Horn in favor of easting to Cape Town, South Africa, and a stop at Tasmania (south of Melbourne, Australia) before putting in at Tahiti on 26 October 1788.

Indifferent performance by the crew and the lures of the “romantic” South Pacific finally resulted in a mutiny 24 days after Bounty made sail for the West Indies.

The story, romanticized in print and film, has been popular since the 1930s and does not require retelling.  However, the romantic versions that vilify Bligh do not agree with the facts as recorded by the Admiralty judges of the incident.

The Model

Scale:  ¼”   H 60”  L 82”  W35”
Scale:  1/8” H 35”  L 42”  W 17”
Plank on frame construction.  Two models, 1/8” and ¼” scales built by the  J. Stephen Murray family of the Isle of Man circa 1987.