text: After making it safely into Cape Town the Bounty spends nearly a month resupplying and repairing storm damage, allowing you plenty of time to enjoy the delights of that port. You set sail again on the first day of July and the following month you arrive at Adventure Bay on the island of Tasmania to the south of Australia. You pause there again to re-supply and sail on again in September bound for Tahiti. Spirits are high on board as you near your destination.
  
  Unfortunately, you and another sailor called James Valentine begin to develop a breathing problem, sometimes after exertion you find you have difficulty catching your breath. You and Valentine decide to see the Ship's Surgeon, a heavy-drinking red-faced fat man called Thomas Huggan, who seems rather surprised to be consulted on something medical. Huggan examines you both, wheezing the whole time, and when he has finished he wipes the sweat off his face and gulps down a glass of rum.
  
  "Internal disorder of some kind," he tells you both. "Probably too much blood in your spleens. If you would let me open a vein I will bleed you both about a pint and this will relieve the pressure on your organs, you'll be up and down the rigging free as birds then."
  
  You and Valentine exchange glances.
  > politely decline
  You politely refuse and Huggan shrugs, fetches a dirty scalpel and slices Valentine's arm open. Blood sprays out over the walls and a startled Huggan desperately staunches the bleeding with a stained rag. He bandages Valentine's arm but the damage is done. Over the following days the wound continues first to bleed, then to ooze and Valentine becomes increasingly faint and weak. Soon his entire arm is black and green.
  
  Within days Valentine is consigned to his bunk, feverish and fading. Huggan is powerless to do anything, when Bligh learns of the situation he rages at the Surgeon in the most violent language possible. Valentine continues to weaken and dies late one night. A somber mood descends over the whole crew as he is sewn into his hammock and the following morning it is cast into the sea. You sit next to his body on the first night thinking grimly how that could have been you.
  > sinking spirits
  Valentine's death sends the crew's spirits plunging low and Bligh decides to raise morale by instructing the crew to dance a jig to the tunes of a half-blind fiddler he has brought on board. The last thing the crew feel like doing is dancing but the sailors obligingly force themselves to their feet and dance wearily to the tunes the fiddler plays. You are dancing when you notice two men are remaining seated.
  
  William Brown, a mild scientific man who Bligh brought on board as a botanist to take care of the breadfruit plants is talking quietly to John Mills the Gunner's Mate, a tough and unfriendly older man. You see Fletcher Christian go over and encourage them to dance but Mills shakes his head emphatically and Brown lowers his head. Christian shrugs and walks away.
  > join the two men in their refusal
  You walk over and sit next to Mills but you have been spotted.
  
  Bligh yells for the music to stop and strides towards you three.
  
  "Why are you not dancing like the others?" he demands.
  
  "It does not seem like an appropriate time for that," Brown says quietly.
  
  "Damn you for contemptible rascals," Bligh cries. "All three of you will have your grog stopped from now until we reach Tahiti."
  
  Mills glares back at him with a half-smile on his face as Bligh turns, returns to his former position near the helm and orders the fiddler to keep playing. The punishment is a harsh one but not as bad as it could have been: a week later you reach Tahiti.
  > tahiti
  You are all relieved when the beautiful tree-lined round island of Tahiti is spotted. Bligh has been getting on everyone's nerves: he is no longer on speaking terms with Sailing Master Fryer, Surgeon Huggan or the Carpenter William Purcell and he has been grating the nerves of most of the rest of the crew. It is with relief that Tahiti is sighted and within hours hundreds upon hundreds of canoes packed with scantily clad but cheering Tahitian men and women surround the Bounty. The women are a particularly lovely sight.
  
  After a week anchored offshore Bligh sends Christian to lead a party of nine ashore in the ship's cutter to begin setting up tents and making a camp for the crew to use while they gather the breadfruit. You are part of this group and are left with another sailor called John Adams to guard the boats. Adams is a clever young fellow and the two of you are chatting when you notice a pair of young ladies eying you from behind some nearby huts. When they see you looking they glance at each other and giggle.
  
  Like all Tahitians they are dark skinned and wear nothing above the waist, their full breasts and brown nipples peep out shyly between the strands of their long black hair. They seem to have more than a casual interest in you and Adams nudges you in the side and points at the women grinning. He suggests you go over, introduce yourselves and keep the young ladies company for a while.
  > go and get acquainted with the young ladies
  With a shrug you go over with Adams to meet the two young ladies. With many smiles they lead you into an empty hut where they offer you some fruit and nut snacks and begin examining your skin and clothes. They don't mind your touching them and when you kiss them they seem to like it and kiss you back. Before things can get too interesting you hear Christian calling your name outside and with a curse you and Adams give your new friends a goodbye kiss and hurry outside.
  
  Christian is all smiles and thanks you both for doing your bit to improve England's relationship with the Tahitian people, with embarrassed smiles and to the, slightly jealous, quips of your companions you row back to the Bounty for the evening. Bligh talks to Christian after you arrive and as you and Adams are clearing the boat after swinging it in he suddenly gives a high-pitched yelp.
  
  "A gudgeon is missing!" he exclaims. "You damned fools, where is the aft gudgeon?"
  You and Adams both look for the little metal tube that fixes to part of the rudder but it is indeed missing. Inevitably Bligh fetches Christian, who reluctantly confirms that you both left the boats unattended for a short time. Bligh yells at Christian before inevitably sentencing you both to twelve lashes each for the disappearance of the little metal tube.
  
  Later as you lie down in your hammock, your back burning, you reflect that you are really beginning to hate that man.
  > discontent
  The Bounty remains anchored in Matavai Bay for the next month while every day Bligh, Christian or Fryer lead a party of men ashore to gather breadfruit trees. You get the impression that the men are working deliberately slowly to prolong their stay on Tahiti, as often as they are able the men contrive to spend time with the Tahitians in their villages. All of the Natives are extremely friendly and the women remarkably so. Christian and, surprisingly, Bligh are fairly relaxed about these interactions between the crew and the women but after a year at sea it would have been very unwise to try to restrain the men.
  
  Bligh inevitably tries however. One day you are a part of a party that is working even more slowly than usual and Bligh is becoming irritable and orders you all to work faster. Repeatedly a sailor called Matthew Thompson, an older and extremely tough man keeps demanding, increasingly more insistently that he be allowed to go into the village. Bligh continues to refuse him. Finally, Thompson has had enough.
  
  "Damn you sir," he growls. "If you were any sort of officer you would know better than to deny your men what they want."
  
  There is stunned silence following this outburst.
  > join Thompson in criticising Bligh
  You speak up, agreeing with Thompson that is the way the whole crew feels. Bligh has gone very pale.
  
  "Damn you for mutinous dogs," he growls. "Quartermaster, twelve lashes each!"
  
  The lash is fetched, the blows are landed and your back is transformed into agony. Sullen and muttering the crew return once more to the Bounty.
  > defiance
  Work continues on gathering the breadfruit plants while the crew members continue to enjoy the hospitality and affections of the local people. As well as the company of the women they now have strong locally-brewed alcohol to enjoy, though such gatherings have to be kept secret when Bligh is ashore. The lure of strong alcohol succeeds in drawing the overweight surgeon Huggan from his cabin (which he has rarely left for the last year) and he comes ashore.
  
  The Tahitians find the fat, red-faced man great fun and the men insist on plying him with more and more alcohol. Finally, it is getting late and Christian, who is part of the party though not drinking himself, informs everyone it is time to return to the ship or risk the wrath of Bligh. Most of the men stumble to their feet and stagger towards the boat but Huggan is too far gone. Making a rude comment about Bligh he tells Christian to leave him there.
  
  Christian licks his lips nervously. Huggan as a Surgeon is a fellow officer and Christian has no authority to order him back to the ship, on the other hand Bligh is sure to notice his absence and punish Huggan in some way. When Christian points this out Huggan laughs and again voices uncomplimentary views about your Commander. Christian shrugs, turns to you and suggests you come back.
  > join Huggan on an all-night bender
  You refuse and Christian reluctantly leads his party back to the ship. All that night you and Huggan down cup after cup of the burningly strong local spirits. The Tahitian men may be used to the strong alcohol but you not so much. Some time before dawn you lie down on your back and pass out. When the inevitable vomit comes your mouth is closed and it remains in your mouth and throat.
  
  You suffocate and choke to death as the morning sun rises over this tropical paradise.