- Hardcover: 211 pages
- Publisher: Diane Pub Co; First Edition edition (Nov 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0756753155
- ISBN-13: 978-0756753153
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Long Overdue Balance to Much Maligned Bligh
12 Mar 2000
Format:Hardcover
Apologies to Charles Laughton, Hollywood's swaggering, autocratic 18th Century British naval officer who loses HMS Bounty to Clark Gable's Christian. Author John Toohey's book "Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare" lends long overdue balance to the extremely capable if troubled William Bligh.
Combining history with literary license, Toohey weaves a gripping account of survival and intrigue. The book's early focus is on Bligh's experiences as ship's Master and principal cartographer during James Cook's third exploration of the Pacific. When Cook is killed in the Sandwich Islands Bligh feels blame. This guilt is compounded by disgust when, upon returning to England, Bligh finds he has been deprived credit for his work on the expedition's soon famous maps of the Pacific. These "failures" drive Bligh to seek an opportunity to reclaim just honor and recognition.
It comes in 1787 when Bligh is sent on a mission of moderate importance. Like all he does, Bligh is compelled to conduct it as though the world were watching (as they had Cook ten years earlier). There is a mutiny. Bligh and eighteen men are set adrift in a 23 foot launch with a meager ration of food, water, instruments but no charts. His leadership and navigation skills are challenged by storms, starvation, exposure, and (again) growing dissention yet Bligh negotiates nearly 4,200 miles of ocean to safety in Timor -- with the loss of one man and all the while obsessively (if not dutifully) making notations and drawings of landforms along the way. It is an incomparable achievement yet, upon returning to England questions of the mutiny share headlines with the tale of brilliant navigation and survival.
Though Bligh's wife's words, Toohey sums up the man best: "He has always given the impression he has been victimized, yet he seems wilfully prepared to destroy his career for an insignificant principle... His troubles consume him... He is so determined to abide by the letter of the law he can never understand how he aggravates people who know that certain situations require more imagination than he is prepared to put in. They admire him, respect him, call him a hero -- but they never warm to him... More than any man she has ever met he feels utterly alone."
Toohey description of Bligh and his interrelationship with his "boat mates," -- particularly stubborn William Purcell and the conspiring John Fryer -- lend intrigue. This story evokes qualities from "Bridge On the River Kwai" and "Twelve Angry Men". It's a good read and a balanced account that helps the reader climb into a 23 foot boat in the South Pacific and into the head of Britain's most maligned sea captain.
Combining history with literary license, Toohey weaves a gripping account of survival and intrigue. The book's early focus is on Bligh's experiences as ship's Master and principal cartographer during James Cook's third exploration of the Pacific. When Cook is killed in the Sandwich Islands Bligh feels blame. This guilt is compounded by disgust when, upon returning to England, Bligh finds he has been deprived credit for his work on the expedition's soon famous maps of the Pacific. These "failures" drive Bligh to seek an opportunity to reclaim just honor and recognition.
It comes in 1787 when Bligh is sent on a mission of moderate importance. Like all he does, Bligh is compelled to conduct it as though the world were watching (as they had Cook ten years earlier). There is a mutiny. Bligh and eighteen men are set adrift in a 23 foot launch with a meager ration of food, water, instruments but no charts. His leadership and navigation skills are challenged by storms, starvation, exposure, and (again) growing dissention yet Bligh negotiates nearly 4,200 miles of ocean to safety in Timor -- with the loss of one man and all the while obsessively (if not dutifully) making notations and drawings of landforms along the way. It is an incomparable achievement yet, upon returning to England questions of the mutiny share headlines with the tale of brilliant navigation and survival.
Though Bligh's wife's words, Toohey sums up the man best: "He has always given the impression he has been victimized, yet he seems wilfully prepared to destroy his career for an insignificant principle... His troubles consume him... He is so determined to abide by the letter of the law he can never understand how he aggravates people who know that certain situations require more imagination than he is prepared to put in. They admire him, respect him, call him a hero -- but they never warm to him... More than any man she has ever met he feels utterly alone."
Toohey description of Bligh and his interrelationship with his "boat mates," -- particularly stubborn William Purcell and the conspiring John Fryer -- lend intrigue. This story evokes qualities from "Bridge On the River Kwai" and "Twelve Angry Men". It's a good read and a balanced account that helps the reader climb into a 23 foot boat in the South Pacific and into the head of Britain's most maligned sea captain.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Did not compare well to fictionalized 'Men Against the Sea'
11 Aug 2000
Format:Hardcover
While this book was nicely written and a quick read, I did not particularly enjoy it. While the story of Bligh and his men and their journey across the South Pacific is truly one of the most amazing stories of sea survival ever to occur, this book tooled thru so much of the journey so quickly that I never got the sense of its scope or its heroic nature. I also agree with comments of other reviewers that it did not convey Bligh's great leadership abilities well. In that regard the fcitionalized 'Men Against the Sea' (Nordhoff and Hall) did a much better job. If anything, this telling made me more understanding of the resentment of the men in the boat (as opposed to those who stayed behind after the mutiny) against Bligh, while the novel made it clear that the same qualites of control and rigor which resulted in the mutiny are also the major reasons that Bligh and his men survived the journey. I would heartily recommend the entire MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY trilogy for those who are interested in the Bounty story over this somewhat factual account.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Truly a gold nugget...
13 May 2000
Format:Hardcover
A few years ago, I visited the Museum of Gardening History on the south embankment of the Thames in London. The Museum is housed in a former church, and plant specimens from the New World as well as the remains of Tradescants, the botanists who discovered and classified many of them, are located on the grounds.
The crisp October day I visited the museum, Tradescantia (blue-flowered Virgina Spiderwort) were in bloom and the leaves of the Virginia Creeper were turning a bright red. I lingered in this beautiful spot, reading the inscriptions on the tombstones, and in so doing discovered the grave of Captain William Bligh.
Until that moment, I had had no idea Bligh was anything other than the dreadful character portrayed by Charles Laughton in the film "Mutiny on the Bounty." That day, I learned he was an educated man who transported a number of botanists overseas, including the Tradescants, and thereby played an important role in the collection and classification of plant life.
Since then, I have made it a point to learn all I can about this amazing and much maligned man. For example, I once lived in Hawaii, and knew Captain Cook had died at Kealakekua Bay, but I did not know Bligh was on that ill-fated expedition until I saw the 1980's film "The Bounty" starring Sir Anthony Hopkins as Bligh. (A far more accurate film than the older version.)
I enjoyed Toohey's book. It is an excellent history: factual, interesting, balanced. I did not know until I read Toohey's book that Bligh had distinguished himself during the Napoleonic Wars. This man was truly a hero, and deserves to be re-discovered and honored for his accomplishments.
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