William Bligh-The Mutiny on Board H.M.S. Bounty

A 3,600 Mile Voyage in an Open Boat

Just finished reading William Bligh's account of the mutiny on the Bounty. This is of course a famous episode in maritime history, one immortalised by Hollywood on more than one occasion (1916, 1935 with Clark Gable, 1962 with the legendary Brando and 1984 with Gibson/Hopkins). Although Hollywood tends to over-dramatise events and romanticise its characters, the narrative itself is nothing short of breath-taking.

The story goes as follows: In December 1787 William Bligh, a former companion of Captain Cook, set out with his crew on The Bounty from Spithead for Tahiti, where they were to procure bread fruit trees which they hoped to introduce them to the colonies in the West Indies. Their initial intention was to round Cape Horn into the Pacific and sail to Tahiti from there. However, strong winds in the area prevented them from making any progress, and after persevering for a whole month off the southern tip of South America, it was decided that they sail to Tahiti by heading in the opposite direction, south of Africa, through the Indian Ocean and from there to the Pacific.

This approach was more successful, and in October 1788 they reached 'Otaheite' as Tahiti was known at the time. The ship and crew spent five months there, collecting a total of 1,015 breadfruit plants. Most of the crew lived ashore and became accustomed to local life. Many of the men formed relationships with local women and became 'embedded' in life there. Master's Mate and Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian married Maimiti, a Tahitian woman. Some men even had themselves tattooed in native fashion.

All this led to disaster. The ship departed from Tahiti on 4 April 1789, and on the 28th of the same month a mutiny broke out near the Friendly Islands (known as Tonga Islands today), 1,300 miles west of Tahiti. Bligh's cabin was invaded during the night by some of the crew, who forced him and 18 of the crew who remained loyal to him into a launch, an 23-foot open boat with a sail. They were given limited supplies of water, bread, meat and rum. Strict rationing of these supplies was necessary if they were to survive the journey. Bligh issued only a quarter of a pint of water per day, plus an ounce of bread (which was getting increasingly mouldy). They first stopped at the island of Tofoa in order to gather further supplies, where natives attacked them and killed John Norton, who was stoned to death. Bligh decided that they had to make the journey to Timor by making as few stops for supplies as possible.

In a remarkable feat of seamanship and navigation,Bligh led the boat on a 47-day voyage to Timor in the Dutch East Indies, equipped only with a sextant and a pocket watch, with no charts or compass. He recorded the distance as 3,618 nautical miles (6710 km). He was chased by cannibals in what is now known as Bligh Water, Fiji, and passed through the difficult Torres Strait along the way, and landed in Kupang, Timor on June 14. Shortly after the launch reached Timor, the cook and botanist died. Three other crewmen died in the coming months.Lieutenant Bligh returned to Britain and reported the mutiny to the Admiralty on 15 March 1790.

This is an amazing example of human ability, endurance and determination. The odds were firmly stacked against Bligh and his companions. Bligh managed to navigate his way precisely where he wanted to, armed with only basic tools. Through inclement weather, malnutrition and the threat from native canoes, he managed to deliver his men to safety. After days of heavy rain, the men could no more bear to wear the soaked clothes. They took them off, washed them in sea water and wrung them, something that gave them temporary reilief. The hardships of the journey were too much for some who died in Kupang and Timor. The majority, however, were able to reach Britain safely. Bligh's account is not only valuable for the details of the impossible journey to Timor. It is also filled with good detail on life in Tahiti, the local customs and life, depicted lovingly by Bligh, who had also formed connections to local chiefs and their families.

Apart from being a useful source for the historian, Bligh's account is also a fascinating tale.

Below is the trailer for the 1962 film. I laughed at the "Tahiti...a land that has always represented escape from civilization". How pre-political correctness. Enjoy.

No estes lejos de mi (soneto XLV)

No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque cómo,
porque, no sé decirlo, es largo el día,
y te estaré esperando como en las estaciones
cuando en alguna parte se durmieron los trenes.

No te vayas por una hora porque entonces
en esa hora se juntan las gotas del desvelo
y tal vez todo el humo que anda buscando casa
venga a matar aún mi corazón perdido.

Ay que no se quebrante tu silueta en la arena,
ay que no vuelen tus párpados en la ausencia:
no te vayas por un minuto, bienamada,

porque en ese minuto te habrás ido tan lejos
que yo cruzaré toda la tierra preguntando
si volverás o si me dejarás muriendo.

Pablo Neruda, Soneto XLV, Cien Sonetos de Amor

Translation:

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

Archipelagos-Christakis Georgiou

" The Land Rover stopped. It is four forty-five.

‘Must be somewhere here,’ the Englishman shouted. He jumped down from the Land Rover. The headlights were on. Their light, cool and lifeless, moved reluctantly on a horizontal line. With his torch, the Englishman examined the wire. Then he tripped on the thick rope: ‘Sabotage,’ he shouted to those in the Land Rover:

They all jumped down, torches in hand. They saw the thick rope riding the wire and touching the soil, caressing it. Three yards away the beams fell on a human body. The muscles were contracted, the face buried amid a thicket of thorns.

‘Rascal. Since you don’t know the job, why did you get involved?’ He bends over him.

‘Dead. Dead as a piece of wood.’"

Archipelagos

Cypriot strikers demanding higher wages

Just finished reading Christakis Georgiou's Archipelagos. The book tells the story of Ioanna Manoleon, a cabaret performer in 1940s Cyprus who marries the heir of an American mining family, Matthias Oriol. Matthias' family owned mines around the world and operated the Cypriot copper mines. He is an alcoholic/epileptic man with mental problems and his decision to marry Ioanna does not go down very well with his conservative family. Ioanna, however, rises through the challenge to gradually gain control of her husband's business. All this is happening during a succession of troubles on the island: the miners' strikes in the late 40s, the anti-colonial nationalist struggle of the 1950s and the rift between the island's two communities, Greek & Turkish of the late 50s onwards.

Cypriot miners

Georgiou gives a fairly accurate account of the real rags-to-riches story of Zena Gunther de Tyras, a cabaret dancer in Limassol who married the heir of the Gunther family, owners of the Cyprus Mines Corporation which exploited the Skouriotissa mine, one of the largest copper mines in the world. Zena went on to become a global socialite, a major charity donor and a leading personality in Cyprus and Europe. Georgiou places his Ioanna/Zena in the middle of the anti-colonial struggle, funding the local armed groups fighting the British. Her life is full of hope, but also disappointment, and is painted against the backdrop of political developments on the island in this period.


The story is embellished with vignettes of Cyprus of the 1940s-1970s, frequently capturing and bringing back to life real or 'as real' incidents of what was the island's turbulent period. Although the book inevitably suffers from its translation into English, it manages to convey the spirit of the times beautifully. Georgiou makes an effort not to appear politically biased, although he at times shows his sympathy towards the striking miners and persecuted communists-who wouldn't? He also stops just shy of openly blaming the British for encouraging the inter-communal conflict and the partition of the island. Besides, this was a favourite policy of colonial Britain, as India and Pakistan can testify.

May Day parade in Cyprus, with the demand for
'8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation, 8 hours of rest'

I found the story gripping, mainly because it describes places, things and people that are familiar to me. This does not go to say that Georgiou does not tell a good story. He managed to write a history by simply telling a story. The book does not at any point appear to be didactic and aloof. Stories and history, fable and truth are well woven together to create an entertaining and informative piece of work. Recommended.

Magellan's Journey

Just finished reading Magellan's Voyage. A Narrative Account of the First Voyage, last night in fact. This is a diary of the first circumnavigation of the globe, written by Italian Antonio Pigafetta who was a travel companion of Magellan (access ebook here). The expedition set out from Seville in Spain on August 10, 1519, travelled to South America, Brazil, the Rio de la Plata (January 1520), found a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific in November 1520, which was to become known as Strait of Magellan. The fleet carried on to cross the Pacific and reached the Marianas and the Philippines by March 1521. Magellan himself was killed in a battle in Cebu, in the Philippines, in April. The fleet carried on to Borneo by June and the Spice Islands by November of the same year where they bought spices, cloves and cinnamon. Although this was the initial aim of the voyage (with the intention of heading back east and round America in their return), the new captain decided to head west and by rounding the Cape of Good Hope head north and reach Spain that way. As one of the two ships, the Trinidad, was too damaged to make the journey back to Spain, the Victoria departed alone in December. It rounded the Cape of Good Hope in May 1522 with only rice for rations. Between the Cape and the Cape Verde islands 20 crew died of starvation and disease. On September 6, 1522 the Victoria arrived to Spain, three years after its departure.

Pigafetta's description is very graphic, with beautiful depictions of a world previously unknown to Europeans of this time. It includes exact descriptions of locations, names, produce and economies, along with very useful vocabularies of languages encountered in the journey. We have useful information on spices and the cultivation of cloves and cinnamon. At the same time, it slips into exaggeration, such as when describing native tribes of Patagonia as 'giants', and many other examples where European imagination, prejudice and ignorance prevailed. As an account it is very useful, especially when one comes to consider the conditions of early modern travel and exploration with the practical issues that accompanied it, such as provisions, communication with various linguistic groups and so on. A beautiful, savage and, at times, dreamy account.

Magellan's route (click for large version)

Macondo sunsets

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

Gabriel Garcia Marquez-A Hundred Years of Solitude

One of the greatest literary achievements, this book is surely a must. I don't like to praise such things too much, as when other people do it I get put off (I didn't watch, listen to or read many good things because of this obstinacy). However, with this one I must insist. You see, this Book (with a capital B) is one of those that people should read. Set in the depths of time, in the Colombian forests, it tells the tale of seven generations of the Buendia family who founded the town of Macondo. It's a life full of events: wars, disasters, miracles, obscenities, love, hate, death. It's a full life. This one of only two books I have ever read twice (the other one to be reviewed here in the future). I usually adopt a 'why read something twice when there's so much you haven't read?' approach to life.


What makes this book special? Marquez's ability to weave a tale of fiction, full of both truths and fiction itself, a magical web of natural and supernatural, normal, abnormal and paranormal, make it compulsory reading. Such a book could only have been written by a South American author. It carries the result of centuries of interaction between Europeans and natives, Christians and 'heathens' etc etc. From Rebeca's earth-eating, to Jose Arcadio's enormous tattooed body and Colonel Aureliano's constant fight against the conservative government forces, the Book is full of promise, surprise and disappointment. I don't want to give more away. Find it and read it. Now. And tell me what you think. I am expecting your response (friends, Romans and all the rest of it).