text: After leaving the English Channel the weather does indeed improve and you stop off at the Canary Islands for a week. Spirits are high as you sail onto the southwest bound for Tahiti, an island which you have heard of but have no idea where it is. You gather Bligh intends to sail around Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, to get there. The ship is sailing so well Bligh decides to promote a protégé of his called Fletcher Christian from Master’s Mate to Acting Lieutenant, effectively making him Bligh’s deputy.
  
  Like everyone else on board the ship you like Christian. He is a cheerful and very likable young man, though a slightly sensitive soul who takes a solicitous interest in everyone’s welfare. His promotion comes at the expense of the Sailing Master John Fryer, a professional man, whose strong, independent opinions seem to irritate Bligh. He takes Christian’s promotion without a word but some of the crew are not so subtle.
  
  Matthew Quintal is one of your fellow seamen, a young Cornishman and a natural-born trouble-maker, always looking for an opportunity to make a little mischief. One morning he is scrubbing the deck close to where Fryer is sighting the sun with a sextant and begins to mock Fryer about Christian’s promotion, lightly at first and then more harshly when Fryer shows no response. Some of the other sailors standing nearby are exchanging glances and grinning.
  > You stay quiet
  You stay silent as Quintal continues to jeer Fryer, who largely ignores him, replying with brief, disdainful sentences. Suddenly you all jump as a bizarrely high-pitched cry rings out from further up the deck and you all glance up to see the comical form of Bligh striding towards you.
  
  “You infernal scoundrels!” he roars. “How dare you cowardly rascals show such insolence and contempt for Mr Fryer! Mr Fryer, how came you to permit such a thing to happen sir? Twenty-four lashes sailor to remind you of the proper way of addressing your superiors! Master-at-Arms, fetch the lash! Quartermaster, prepare this man!”
  
  Quintal is seized, the shirt torn from his back and he is lashed to the mast. The Master-at-Arms approaches with the cat o’nine tails and begins flaying Quintal’s back. Soon blood is pouring down his backside and legs as the flesh is stripped from his back but Quintal takes it all in silence. The crew also watch in grim silence until the punishment is complete.
  
  “May that be a lesson to you all!” Bligh declares.