text: You refuse to have anything to do with such a dangerous plan and the deserters swear you to silence. That evening, while Midshipman Thomas Haywood is sleeping over the arms chest Churchill, Millward and Muspratt sneak into the ship’s cutter and desert. That morning Bligh is furious when he discovers the missing men’s absence, suspecting you and Haywood of being involved he orders you both clapped in irons for a week.
  
  Bligh pursues the deserters to Matavai Bay where he learns from Natives that the trio of fugitives traded for a canoe and paddled north in the direction of a small island called Tetaroa. Bligh is set to pursue but the weather turns nasty and for two weeks a storm rages (Bligh has a rage of his own when he discovers the spare sails have rotted into uselessness). Finally, it clears and Bligh sails north to the small island accompanied by dozens of Native canoes.
  
  You and Haywood are still under suspicion so you are not part of the party Bligh leads ashore which succeeds in recapturing the fugitives without trouble. Between the three deserters Bligh sentences them to one hundred and twenty lashes and steers the Bounty back to Toaroa. By now the crew are all seething with quiet discussion about Bligh’s disciplinary methods and a week after the recapture of the fugitives you are chatting ashore about the matter with Isaac Martin, a good-natured American sailor.
  
  While you are talking a Tahitian man wanders over to your boat to have a look, a fairly common occurrence. You both ignore him until the man suddenly grabs an iron hoop that has come loose from a barrel and starts running off. Martin yells at you to get him as you both know Bligh is fond of flogging sailors who let Natives steal things from the ship, no matter how small. You both race after the Native and get close to him but there seems to be no way of stopping him short of violence.
  > You keep running
  You continue to run but Martin springs ahead of you and brings the native down with a fierce punch to the back of the head. Martin forces the hoop from his grip and begins returning it to the boat when you both halt at the sound of a familiar, and despised, yelp from nearby.
  
  “What do you infernal creatures think you are doing?” Bligh exclaims running towards you.
  
  “Stopping that man stealing our things,” Martin tells Bligh irritably. “As you ordered.”
  
  “As I ordered you insolent cur?” Bligh exclaims. “I also ordered no violence towards Natives. You, Martin, twenty-four lashes!”
  
  That evening you watch angrily as Martin is lashed to a tree and whipped by a quartermaster and it is only the intercession of the local Natives, who accept responsibility for the crime, that Bligh reluctantly stops the punishment at nineteen lashes. Regardless, by the time Martin is cut down you nothing but searing anger and hatred towards Bligh.