Fletcher Christian was the master’s mate on the Bounty under Captain William Bligh who led the mutiny of the ship on its voyage from Tahiti. Although historically factual, the story of Fletcher Christian and his mutiny has been romantically enhanced by Hollywood over the years, most particularly in the 1935 and 1962 versions of Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Clark Gable and Marlon Brando, respectively. The real Fletcher was born into a solidly middle class family, but when his father died when he was a small child, the family was plunged into financial straits. Fletcher managed to get a gentleman’s education in spite of it all (being a schoolmate of the young William Wordsworth), but it was most likely the need to earn a living that sent him to sea in 1787. By all accounts he was a worthy and responsible young seaman, if given to some depression and anxieties. He had served under Captain Bligh previously, and that gentleman, too, by all accounts, was liked and respected by his underlings. So, Hollywood notwithstanding, it was probably the strain of the return voyage, after an idyllic five month stay in Tahiti among the unencumbered-by-sexual-hangups Tahitians, that led to the mutiny. It does not seem to have been the case that a highly principled Fletcher Christian, champion of the underdog, bravely rallied his men and stood up to the evil, torturous and power-mad Captain Bligh. But what fun it that?! At any rate, Bligh and some of his loyalists were set adrift (miraculously surviving to tell the tale), while Fletcher Christian and his followers finally settled on Pitcairn Island. Fletcher’s end came rather ignobly, as well, as he most likely died as a result of the constant warring among the remaining seamen and the Tahitians they had essentially kidnapped. His Tahitian bride bore him three children, and survivors of Fletcher brag about their genesis to this day. Who can blame them if they see Clark Gable when they think of Grandpa Fletcher?
