text: By the beginning of 1789 the crew have had enough of Bligh and his ways.
  
  Charles Churchill, a middle-aged Manchurian and the Master-at-Arms (the man nominally in charge of discipline on the ship) gathers you, the recently flogged Muspratt and another sailor called John Millward, a young and reasonably well-educated fellow, into a secret meeting a short way from the shore party.
  
  “I will tell you plainly boys I don’t care a damn for our Commander,” he whispers. “He deserves nothing better than to be shark bait for all I care. But this place is the closest thing to heaven on each I have ever clapped eyes on in all my years of sailing. I say tonight we take a boat and sneak away, Haywood has the watch with us tonight, he is ever sleeping on duty and besides was up most of last night at cards in the wardroom. I will get us a brace of guns each, we can take the cutter and sail round to Matavai Bay and from there light out to one of the smaller islands. After our shipmates have left on the Bounty we can return and live here forever.”
  
  It is a bold but extremely dangerous plan, desertion can be punished with hanging. Millward and Muspratt quickly agree to it and all three turn their gazes on you. You know if you refuse you must promise to keep silent about the plan.
  > You remain aboard the Bounty
  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 crash-tackle the man to the ground
  You make a flying leap, manage to grab the man’s legs and bring him down. Martin is on him in a moment and as the man tries to squirm free he punches him in the face. This calms the Native who lies there clutching his broken nose while Martin picks up the iron hoop and returns to the boat. You are both feeling rather good about your successful protection of Bounty property until you hear that familiar, hated, yelp from the trees.
  
  “What do you infernal creatures think you are doing?” Bligh exclaims running towards you.
  
  “Stopping that man stealing our things,” you tell Bligh irritably. “As you ordered.”
  
  “As I ordered you insolent cur?” Bligh exclaims. “I also ordered no violence towards Natives, both of you twenty-four lashes each!”
  
  That evening you are both lashed to trees and whipped by the quartermasters 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 you are cut down you feel completely and utterly exhausted.