Alexander, Caroline Die Bounty

Die wahre Geschichte der Meuterei auf der Bounty

There have been countless mutinies in the history of seafaring, but none has captured people's imaginations and captured their attention to this day as much as the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789. Paintings, novels, plays and, last but not least, numerous feature films, most famously Mutiny on the Bounty starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable from 1935, have repeatedly retold their colourful and exciting versions of the incident. Why the details of this obscure adventure at the end of the world are still so vivid and captivating is at least as interesting as the truth behind the myth. Caroline Alexander's Bounty finally does justice to the history and the people involved. Her thrilling account of what happened before, during and after the Bounty's dramatic voyage is based on a wealth of sources, including letters, diaries, logbooks and court records. The common version, according to which Captain Bligh's cruel regime was the trigger for the mutiny, ultimately proves untenable, but this does not detract from the fascination of the whole story. On the contrary: as in a good crime story, new astonishing details constantly come to light, surprising answers emerge and, at the same time, captivating new questions arise.