HMS Bounty (100x60cm) Painting

HMS Bounty, also known as HM Armed Vessel Bounty, was a British merchant ship that the Royal Navy purchased in 1787 for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to the South Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to the British West Indies. That mission was never completed owing to a 1789 mutiny led by acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian, an incident now popularly known as the Mutiny on the Bounty. The mutineers later burned Bounty while she was moored at Pitcairn Island in the Southern Pacific Ocean in 1790. An American adventurer helped land several remains of Bounty in 1957. Bounty was originally the collier Bethia, which was reportedly built in 1784 at Blaydes Yard in Hull, Yorkshire. The Royal Navy purchased her for £1,950 on 23 May 1787 (equivalent to £271,000 in 2023), and subsequently refitted the ship and renamed her Bounty. The ship was relatively small at 215 tons, but had three masts and was full-rigged. After conversion for the breadfruit expedition, she was equipped with four 4 pdr (1.8 kg) cannon and ten swivel guns.