In its early years, the Society offered prizes — which it called "premiums" — for people who could successfully achieve one of a number of published challenges. Captain William Bligh suffered the Mutiny on the Bounty while attempting to win a premium for shipping breadfruit from the East to the West Indies. He tried again and this time succeeded, and the Society awarded him the prize. The Society offered premiums for a very wide range of challenges including inventing new forms of machinery and agricultural improvements (which included seeking ways to improve the cultivation of opium poppies).