A British mutiny that occurred near the Tongan Islands on HMS Bounty, under the command of Captain Bligh. Some of the crew, resenting Bligh’s harsh authority, rebelled under the leadership of Fletcher Christian. Bligh and 18 others were cast off in a small, open boat with no chart. Thanks to Bligh’s navigational skill and resourcefulness, they covered a distance of 5822 km (3618 miles), arriving in Timor about six weeks later. Some of the mutineers surrendered and others were captured and court martialled in England. Fletcher Christian and some of the other mutineers, with a number of Tahitian men and women, settled on Pitcairn Island in 1790. Their descendants moved to Norfolk Island in 1856.