# 42955
BLIGH, William (1754-1817)
[BLIGH’S COPY]. A voyage to the South Sea, undertaken by command of His Majesty, for the purpose of conveying the bread-fruit tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty’s ship the Bounty, commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh.
$95,000.00 AUD
Including an account of the mutiny on board the said ship, and the subsequent voyage of part of the crew, in the ship’s boat, from Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch settlement in the East Indies. The whole illustrated with charts, &c. Published by permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. London : Printed for George Nicol, bookseller to His Majesty, Pall-Mall, 1792. Quarto (300 x 240 mm), period-style binding of burgundy Morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, spine in compartments with elaborate gilt-tooled decoration, contrasting title-pieces lettered in gilt; new marbled endpapers; frontispiece oval portrait of Bligh, engraved by Conde after Russell; the title-leaf (with off-setting from the portrait) inscribed in ink Elizabeth Bligh 1792 in the hand of the author, William Bligh; pp. 264, with 7 engraved plates and charts (5 folding), bound in the following order: Plan & Section of part of the Bounty Armed Transport, shewing the manner of fitting and stowing the Potts, for receiving the Bread-fruit plants (folding); Sections of the Bread Fruit; Sketch from recollection and anchor-bearings of the North Part of Otaheite from Point Venus to Taowne Harbour … by William Bligh, with his facsimile signature (folding); A Copy of the Draught from which the Bounty’s Launch was built (folding); Chart of Bligh’s Islands, incorporating smaller inset Chart of the Northern Part of the New-Hebrides … (folding); NE Coast of New Holland; and Track of the Bounty’s Launch from Tofoa to Timor (folding); occasional spotting or minor staining, otherwise generally clean and crisp throughout, a fine wide-margined copy.
A significant presentation copy of the first edition of William Bligh’s “official” account of the Bounty‘s first voyage, the book’s original owner being none other than Bligh’s wife, Elizabeth “Betsy” Bligh (1751-1812), inscribed to her by William Bligh.
Based on Bligh’s own journals, this edition is the first complete account of “… one of the most heroic sea voyages ever made …”, which contains “… a slightly revised version of the text of Bligh’s narrative of the mutiny, previously published at London in 1790…” (Hill).
The breadfruit, a species of flowering mulberry tree native to Southeast Asia and most of the Pacific Islands, had first been brought back to Europe from Tahiti by Sir Joseph Banks in 1770. It was at the instigation of Banks, who had recognised the breadfruit’s enormous potential as a staple food product, and in particular as an economical means of feeding slaves, that Lieutenent William Bligh’s ill-fated 1787 expedition to Tahiti in the Bounty was mounted. Bligh’s brief was to collect as many samples of breadfruit as possible with the intention of propagating them in the Caribbean.
At the end of April 1789, shortly after the Bounty‘s departure from Tahiti, 24 of the ship’s crew mutinied. The mutineers were led by Fletcher Christian, the master’s mate. Bligh and 18 loyal men were cast adrift in the ship’s launch. Over the course of the next 45 days Bligh succeeded in navigating westward across 4,000 miles of ocean in the tiny boat, by way of the northern coast of Australia and the Torres Strait, eventually reaching the island of Timor at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago. “In the course of this hazardous journey Bligh took the opportunity to chart and name parts of the unknown north-east coast of New Holland as he passed along it” (Wantrup). On his return to England, Bligh was acquitted at a court-martial and promoted to Commander. He was to lead a second expedition to the Pacific in 1791-93 which succeeded in transporting breadfruit from Tahiti to the Caribbean.
Ferguson, 125; Wantrup, 62a; Du Rietz, 93; Kroepelien, Bibilotheca Polynesiana, 93; Hill, 135; Sabin, 5910.
Provenance:
The Property of Mrs. S. Young (Sotheby’s catalogue)
Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, 5 Feb 1979, lot 188
sold to : Hammond
Sotheby’s, London, Travel, Atlases, Maps and other Printed Books, 27-28 June 1985, lot 76
sold to : Maggs Bros., London
private collection, Australia