Pitcairn's Island

The Bounty Trilogy #3

by Charles Bernard Nordhoff, James Norman Hall

PITCAIRN's ISLAND unfolds a tale of drunkeness, betrayal, murder, and vengeance as it chronicles the fate of Christian, the mutineers, and a handful of Tahitians, who together take refuge on the loneliest island in the Pacific.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adventure, Classics, Nautical, Historical, Maritime

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

This describes the 20th century novelist, most famous for Mutiny on the Bounty. For the 19th century journalist and author, see Charles Nordhoff.

Charles Bernard Nordhoff was an English-born American novelist and traveler.

Reviews

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the third novel of the "Bounty" trilogy, the mutineers of the "Bounty" take their Tahiti brides and four male islanders and settle on the previously uninhabited island in the Western South Pacific, the place known as Pitcairn's Island. This novel is fascinating in how it contrasts with the second novel of the series, "Men versus the Sea". In "MS", Captain Bligh and the castaways of the Bounty take a scant amount of food, no weapons, very few supplies and a small launch which was designed to transport small parties from ship to shore, and use these to travel over 1,000 miles through the Pacific to safety in the Dutch port of Timor. Bligh and his crew had nothing, but managed to make it all of those miles to safety with only two men lost.

In contrast, the mutineers had vast resources, an entire island to themselves along with more supplies from Tahiti and the supplies of the "Bounty" itself, and in the end they end up being murdered by each other. It's a sad tale of how men who have nothing in common except their conspiracy in mutiny, with no God and no moral code and no social binding to hold them together, turned a place which should have been a new Garden of Eden into a new manifestation of hell. The mutineers conspire to turn their native helpers into slaves. When the natives revolt and kill half of the mutineers, the remaining mutineers build a still and become perpetual drunks who are supported by their women as they stagger 24/7. Eventually the wives revolt against the men and kill the few who were left. By the time an American vessel visits Pitcairn's island 16 years after the Bounty originally landed there, only one survivor of the Bounty was left on the island. The only other traces of the Bounty mutineers were the children that they begot and the women who supported them and eventually helped to finish their annihiliation. It's a fascinating story.

While the other two volumes of the "Bounty" saga are seafaring tales, "PI" is really more of a story of Paradise lost. It makes one wonder about the makeup of man, are we really basically good creatures, or is there an evil inherent in man that would spoil any utopia that we seek to build for ourselves. I'm sure that Nordhoff meant the reader to ponder this as we read about the demise of the Bounty mutineers. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys such tales.

[Ming Wei · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writer creates some characters that the reader can easily become attached to, the writing and wording is that good it submerges the reader deep into the story, based on true events, events that I did not really know, but reading this book as given me the desire to read more about the subject, very interesting stuff, exceptional author, really enjoyed the book, well written, the story flows at a speed that keeps your immagination and concentration without getting bored. Well worth reading for people interested in history.

[Abigail Hartman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I waffled about the rating: for some parts I would have said three, for some two, for some two and a half, for some one (!). This last novel in the famous "Mutiny on the Bounty" trilogy took me through a range of emotions, but disgust and pity were foremost. The men who sought refuge on Pitcairn's Island after their mutiny called it an Eden, but from day one it was nothing of the sort: every sort of evil, from murder to adultery to gluttony, came with them. At times it was terrible to read, especially since the anarchy of democracy precluded any justice being done, and the rampant killing in the last half is nightmarish. In the end, however, there is a pleasantly surprising amount of hope.

On a side note, while I read the three books in order - "Mutiny," "Men Against the Sea," then "Pitcairn's Island" - and spaced out by many months, I think it would be better to read this novel after "Mutiny." It would, I believe, preserve continuity and leave the characters' personalities fresh in mind.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a big fan of fiction... but have read 3 books of the mutiny on the Bounty. This novel based on actual events is actually very good. It really grabbed me and kept me reading. The characters are very well developed to where you actual start to develop feelings towards them. I hate this guy, I like this guy, I hope this guy lives..... No one really knows exactly how things happened on Pitcairn Island, but this book is so well written that it is almost convincing. I have since learned that this is the third book in a trilogy... maybe I will have to read the previous 2... this one was good enough to make me consider it.

[Afifah Mim · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW!

Highs and Lows!

What a ride...!

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I was a teenager, I have pondered the concept of being abandoned on an island through readings such as Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, and Pitcairn's Island (this reading is a re-read for me). [As an edit, I am adding the movie Castaway in which Tom Hanks is the star and which is a modern version of abandonment on a remote island]. Of course, I knew and know that such any experience could never happen. Pitcairn's Island is unique compared to the other two classics because it tells the story of the mutineers of the Bounty actually wanting to find a remote South Pacific island on which they could hide and never be discovered (as compared to being found and saved). The remaining 9 Bounty mutineers find Pitcairn and land along with 6 Tahitian men and 12 Tahitian women who had joined them for the voyage of discovery. It was understood by all that the Bounty would be destroyed after they had found a suitable new home.

In the early years, one of the mutineers Ned Young has a conversation with Fletcher Christian (who led the mutiny against Captain Bligh) about "the spirit of solitude" as follows:

[Christian] - "A lonely sound, Ned. Sometimes I love it but there are moments when the thought that I can never escape it drives me half frantic."

[Ned] - "The booming of the surf? I have already ceased to hear it in a conscious way. To me it has become a part of the silence of the place."

[Christian] - "I wish I could say as much. You have a faculty I greatly admire. What shall I call it? Stillness of mind, perhaps. It is not one that you could have acquired. You must have always had it."

[Ned] - "Does it seem to you such a valuable faculty?"

[Christian] - "Beyond price! I have often observed you without your being aware of the fact. I believe that you could sit for hours on end without forethought or afterthought, enjoying the beauty of each moment as it passes. What would I not give for your quiet spirit!"

This conversation reminds me so well of the consideration of the top of mindfulness that so many are seeking to achieve in today's world.

Overtime though, the inevitable and unfortunate conflict arose between the "white" Bounty men and the "Indian" men and women. The Bounty men voted 5-4 to divide up ownership of Pitcairn Island while refusing to grant any ownership to the Indian men or women. This places the "Indian's" in a position of slavery. Beyond that, a Bounty mutineer is able to "re-discover" the process of making alcoholic beverages and that has a further adverse affect on relations as well.

What follows is the period that I would call the "killing time" but the author calls it the "evil time". It was especially unfortunate.

The "sole survivor" is Alex who has an end of life conversation with Ned who has remained the most mindful of all of the mutineers. "It's yourself has been spared of all of us to bring up the children. It's a great trust and a scared one. Guard it well. Be faithful to it. I know ye will." Ned adds "That's all. I'd have liked well to stay on with ye, lad. But it's not to be."

I had thought about re-reading the Bounty Trilogy for quite some time. I am so happy that I finally did.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pitcairn's Island is the most ambitious of the three books in the Bounty Trilogy. In fact, it is likely the most ambitious book Nordhoff and Hall ever undertook. In relating the story of the Bounty mutineers' escape and exile, the authors dispense with earlier perspectives and their wide epic sweeps. Whereas Mutiny on the Bounty described the voyage from England to Tahiti and the sailors' rebellion against Captain Bligh and did so from the point of view of Midshipman Roger Byam and Men Against the Sea told of Bligh and the rest of the loyal crew members' 3600 nautical miles sail in an open launch to Timor and did so from the perspective of the ship's doctor, Thomas Ledward, Pitcairn's Island mostly tells things from the third person. The latter novel also has all its action take place on a small, almost forgotten island in the far regions of the South Seas.

The result is a novel that pursues the study of its characters in a much more psychologically detailed manner. The lush island surrounded by ferocious seas also serves as a pressure cooker of sorts that eventually reveals the inhabitants of the island in all their petty jealousies, uncontrolled anger, drunkenness, and revenge. It results in a civil war, leaving a devastated community forever scarred with the memories of debauchery and murder.

Then, as the civil war comes to a close, the novel abruptly shifts to a flashback. The time moves from 1794 to 1808, and the last third of the story is told from the first person narration of the last surviving seaman, Alex Smith. The repentant Smith brings us back to the initial form of storytelling narration that existed in the first two books of the trilogy. And at book's end it provides us with a somber and elegiac close that will forever have those readers who themselves lust after clear mellow nights on the South Seas looking to the same skies that Smith did. Perhaps looking for their own redemption and escape.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the final installment of the Mutiny on the Bouty trilogy, focusing on a small band of mutineers and Tahitians who left that island knowing that if they stayed, the white men would be caught and tried for their crime. (The Tahitians had their own reasons for joining them.)

As a work of historical fiction, it reads as an adventure tale that lands somewhere between Robinson Crusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson and unfortunately, Lord of the Flies.

It was based upon varying renditions of what happened on the island as mainly told by the only white man who survived the experience. As the renditions contradicted each other and occasionally had people acting much out of character, the authors had to make some creative choices so the tale should be largely true but there's room for diversion.

This book also serves as a rather overt cautionary tale; the author has various islanders realizing that alcohol abuse and land ownership as proposed would be their downfall- and what a bloody downfall it was. The story includes a distressing amount of rape, racism, greed, arrogance and human slaughter. There is also a conversion to Christianity added in near the end.

So, closer to Lord of the Flies than the other two. There are a lot of 'how to survive on a tropical island' passages as well, so now you have a fairly good idea of what you're letting yourself in for.

[Mary Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an intriguing story of the HMS Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians who joined them and settled on Pitcairn. Fletcher Christian did his best to create an idyllic island existence. All is well while there is hard work for all in establishing this settlement. Once the hard work is done the trouble begins as it always does; over women, racism, and booze. Attacks and murder and drunken debauchery ensue until the women take control.

An interesting side note: do more reading (internet research) on Pitcairn Island and it’s residents in recent times…early 2000s. It is equally startling.

[Nafi]

বাউন্টি ট্রাইলজি- ইংল্যান্ডের জাহাজ "এইচ.এম.এস বাউন্টি" তাহিতি হয়ে পশ্চিম ভারতীয় দ্বীপপুঞ্জে যাত্রাকালে নেতৃত্বে ছিলেন পৃথিবীখ্যাত ক্যাপ্টেন কুক এর একসময়ের শিষ্য ক্যাপ্টেন ব্লাই। ব্লাইয়ের অভিজ্ঞতা আর দূরদর্শিতা সত্ত্বেও বিদ্রোহ করে বসেন বাউন্টির নাবিক ও অফিসারগণের একটি অংশ। ব্লাই সহ আঠারো জনকে নৌকায় নামিয়ে দেয়া হয় সাগরে। বিদ্রোহের ডাক দেওয়া নয় জন ইংরেজ, সাথে তাহিতি থেকে কিছু ইন্ডিয়ান কে নিয়ে বাউন্টি নোঙর করে পিটকেয়ার্স আইল্যান্ডে। মৃত্যুদন্ড মাথায় নিয়ে নতুন জীবনের খোঁজে ঘর বাঁধেন বিদ্রোহীরা, ক্রমশ তৈরি হতে থাকে নিজেদের মাঝে এবং নেটিভ ইন্ডিয়ানদের সাথে দ্বন্দ্ব, সংঘাত।

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2927397.html

Pitcairn's Island, unlike the other two volumes, has no narrator, apart from the last three chapters which are told by Alexander Smith aka John Adams. Of the fifteen men (nine English and six Tahitians) who landed at Pitcairn in 1789, he was the only survivor when the island was eventually discovered by the American ship Topaz in 1808; Smith/Adams himself gave several different accounts of what had happened during the remaining two decades of his life, and one of the women who moved there in 1789 eventually returned to Tahiti and gave her own account. It's a messy story of violence, alcoholism, and sexual confusion, in an earthly paradise - Pitcairn has the natural resources to support a couple of hundred inhabitants, but even so the small settlement disintegrated fatally.

Nordhoff and Hall dramatise some parts - Fletcher Christian here lives for a few agonising days after the inevitable killing starts, whereas most historical accounts agree that he was one of the first to die - and undersell others - I would very much like someone to write the story from the Tahitian women's perspective, given that they outnumbered the men by three to one after the first spate of killings, and by twelve to one from 1800 when the second last mutineer died. It's also striking that the society was a very young one - Fletcher Christian was 24 when the mutiny took place, and 28 when he was killed; the other mutineers (and presumably the Tahitian men and women they brought with them to Pitcairn) must have been mostly the same age or even younger. Nordhoff and Hall fall back on the clichés of the veteran tars, the unsophisticated "Indians" or "Maori", and their statesmanlike leader, rather than the possible truth of the confused young men and women in an extraordinary situation. But the moment of discovery of the island by the Topaz is particularly well done, and is almost worth the read in itself.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am doing a composite review of all three titles in "The Bounty Trilogy."

It's been years since I saw a "Mutiny of the Bounty" film (have seen the `1930s and the 1960s versions) so can't remember how much of the three books those films cover. But reading all three books in sequence is a nice package. The first one (Mutiny on the Bounty) and the second, Men Against The Sea, are great fast-moving tales with good characterization and lots of believable details. They are "show me" books. The third, Pitcairn Island, is a bit of a soap opera . . . less action and more "domestic" intrigue and detail -- more of a "tell me" book. However, on further reflection I liked Pitcairn Island more after-the-fact than I did at the time of reading. Still, it's not as well-crafted as the first two parts of the trilogy. I'll give it 3.49 Goodreads stars -- the others got 4 stars.

[Susmita Mahmood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always felt something special about Fletcher Christian. Even though I respected Captain Bligh for his perseverance in 'Men Against the Sea', I could never forgot his inhumane behavior with the sailors. Christian was a great leader, but not nearly as heartless as Bligh. This book makes me cry every time I read it.

[Scott Perdue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it even more than Mutiny on the Bounty! It’s a fascinating true story, with moments of shock, heartbreak, inspiration, and wonder. It’s the kind of book that makes you want to learn as much as you can about its topic, such as what became of Pitcairn Island after the book comes to a close.

Definitely a must-read if you enjoyed Mutiny on the Bounty, and a wonderful read even if you have only a passing knowledge of the actual mutiny.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A devastatingly brutal, yet hauntingly peaceful conclusion to the remarkable Bounty trilogy. Pitcairn's Island follows the mutineers' journey after hey set Bligh adrift. The reader will easily see where their unfortunate story will lead, but one can't look away. This trilogy has been around for almost 100 years, and there is a reason for this...it's damn good!

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this 3 part series and highly recommend. I never would have picked up a book set in the 1700s about events on the high seas, but it was recommended by a book club member and I'm so glad. My takeaway from this book is that it's difficult for men to live at peace no matter the circumstances. An unequal number of men and women plus alcohol plus 2 different races/cultures equals fighting.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This intense conclusion to the Bounty trilogy explains what it is like to start life again - again.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply amazing tale of humanity... the dark side of humanity that is! This is the best book I've read in years, a vital read about the perils of democracy and vulnerability civilization. It's a story even more timely and important now than it was 200 years ago.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this final book of the The Mutiny on the Bounty Trilogy first, and it has made me want to read the rest, despite it being a heartbreaking book in many ways. It is a novelized version of the real events that comprised the lives of the mutineers who fled from Tahiti to escape potential capture and punishment along with a few Tahitian men and women. They find their way to a beautiful, secure hiding spot, rich in resources. If not for human nature, it could have been a peaceful permanent haven. However, this book gives evidence that human nature is devastatingly flawed. Many of the men who settle this island are wise, level-headed, and kind, and while everyone is busy settling the island, things go along quite well, for all except the women who had the misfortune of traveling to the island as mates of the least kind and judicious of the men, and even they seem to be coping fairly well because of the companionship of the other women. However, once there is potential for idleness amid plenty, things fall apart in a very rapid series of events, the tragedy of which evoked Shakespeare for me. A few of the men and all of the women and children survive two very awful days, and there is potential, again for peace to reign, but this time alcohol and mental illness lead to several more years of disintegration from which the women eventually flee with the children, to form their own fortified society at the other end of the tiny island. By the time an Americans in the Topaz happen past in 1808, shocked to be greeted by English-speaking teenagers in a canoe, just one mutineer survives in the community of women and children to provide a history of what has transpired. The society the Americans discover is a peaceful, organized, beautiful, and literate one, but it has been hard-won.

[Marty Reeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you create a sizable lead in a sports game, you basically just need to make sure you don’t drastically screw up in the next couple of periods to seal the deal. The final book of the Mutiny on the Bounty, I am happy to report, does seal the deal by not dropping the proverbial ball. And while it does not outshine the first book which gave this trilogy so much notoriety already, it still is not content to just stumble its way across the finish line. In fact, I’d say that Pitcairn’s Island even manages to run up the score a bit more!

Okay, that’s probably enough sports analogies, seeing as how this is definitely not a sports-focused book (unless you feel that mutinies, secret hideaways, and racist strife are sporty). Instead, we get to follow the mysterious fate of Christian Fletcher, the daring albeit reluctant and beleaguered, leader of the motley group of Bounty mutineers.

Because Christian knows that they have committed the unpardonable sin of forcibly removing their captain, he knows that they can never be found again. After restocking in Tahiti with supplies, but most importantly, women (with several enterprising native men thrown into the mix), Christian manages to find what must be one of the most remote and seemingly uninhabitable islands in the world: Pitcairn’s Island. To the mutineers’ advantage, the island had been mischarted decades before so no one is likely to deliberately find them amongst charted islands, and while it looks uninhabitable, once you get past the cliffs and actually get on it, the place is a veritable paradise.

Unlike the previous two entries in the trilogy, there is no 1st person narrative to start off this tale, an interesting choice which later leads to an equally interesting transition into a 1st person narrative. I can hardly criticize any of the narrative choices of Misters Nordhoff and Hall, seeing as how they have so expertly narrativized this true story up to this point, but as a writer I am intrigued about the reasoning behind their choice. Either way, for most readers, I feel that their narrative choices perfectly guide us through this fascinating tale.

Stylistic musings aside, it does not take long for us to follow the mutineers to and then onto this island paradise. Next we see how they go about establishing themselves and setting up their own miniature civilization. All engaging things. But who are we kidding? If you have a group of mutineers and expect them to pull off a peaceful retirement, then you have completely underestimated the abrasive philosophies of men willing to throw their whole world order upside down for their own sense of justice and comfort.

Christian soon discovers that it is difficult to lead a group of men who already had issues with authority (to his credit, he does an admirable job, with one fatal--truly--mistake later on). He also finds that when you pull off a mutiny without prior planning, all within a half an hour or so, you don’t really get to hand pick your colleagues or their motives or morals. This means that a split moment decision determines Christian’s company for the rest of his life, and most of them are not the type of people he (or each other for that matter) would choose had he been able to consider his company more carefully.

Having said all that, things go surprisingly well for a period of time, though Nordhoff and Hall quietly insert hints of future conflicts to come: the near desecration of the native’s newly built temple, the creation of an alcohol still by one of the more desperately enterprising mutineers, the seemingly harmless but ultimately, supremely, influential disparity in numbers between males and females. So when things come to a head, we are not taken completely off guard, but also … wow. What a heart-wrenching, phenomenal mess of a conflict it is--some of the most painful, gripping, and tragic couple of chapters I’ve read in a long time.


As far as actions are concerned, I feel like both sides are justified in their choices. I also feel as if justifiable anger can unintentionally spin out of control and negatively impact innocent bystanders or even allies. It is hard to remove the devastating racial divisiveness of this troubled community hundreds of years ago from the kind that we are going through in America at this time. Perhaps, if everyone were to read Pitcairn’s Island, we could all see the zero-sum game of assuming superiority/inferiority for the most trivial of reasons (the color of one’s skin or the harmless nature of a different culture or religion) or of assuming the worst out of everyone’s intentions without more respectful and open dialogue.

Something interesting does emerge from all of this, and whether it is purposeful or not (I have a mind that it cannot be completely incidental), it soon becomes the central focus of the story: the strength of the women in this group. While they have simply been pawns to telling the story up until this point, we start to see some distinguishing characteristics and leadership arise in these moments of intense need, and soon enough the women become the protagonists. In fact, it made me wish that Nordhoff and Hall would have stuck to their 1st person narration from the previous two books, but instead of waiting two-thirds of the way through before handing it off to one of the surviving mutineers, starting off right from the beginning from the point of view of one of the women (preferably Maimiti, Christian’s quiet yet strong and capable wife).

All in all the legacy of the mutineers on Pitcairn’s Island leaves a lot to ponder, especially as you consider what it takes to establish a successful and peaceful piece of civilization … or what little it takes to unravel it all and bring misery and destruction to the whole population. In a way, I suppose we are all on a somewhat grander version of Pitcairn’s Island. How we end up must depend on thoughtful and deliberate actions towards the others with whom we share this “island.” May we choose peace and prosperity rather than fear and hatred! (Plus, perhaps it would not hurt for us to recognize that we may not even realize who the real protagonists of our stories have been this whole time.)

Final score: Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy completes a landslide victory (islandslide victory?).

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fascinating and very depressing. What a sad end to the Bounty mutineers and their incredible attempt at making a new life for themselves on Pitcairn Island. I was blown away by their ability to start a new life on an unknown island in the south Pacific and be so isolated. I have learned two things from this book, alcohol ruins everything and be nice to your neighbors because they just may kill you.

[Eric Olsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tragic tale of Fletcher Christian and his men on Pitcairn Island, culminating in the degeneracy and the bloody horrors that the group commits upon each other...not an irrational result of a group who initially elected to mutiny. Order is only achieved when the necessity of a relationship with God is realized and achieved. A great historical example of how life without God results -- terror, violence, addiction, jealousy and death -- and how God's grace brings peace, hope and happiness.

[Jennifer Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third book in the series and a wonderful capstone. This is a fascinating account of the lives of the mutineers and their Tahitian wives and companions on the isolated island home, Pitcairns Island.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this postscript to the Bounty mutiny much more interesting than the mutiny itself...

[Michael Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Browsing the library website I found a book that included all three novels that make this trilogy:
Mutiny on the Bounty (by Charles Nordhoff)
Men Against the Sea (by James Hall)
Pitcairn's Island (by Charles Nordhoff & James Hall).

Pitcairn's Island follows the men who remained on the Bounty, after they left a number of crewmen back on Tahiti.
Unlike the previous two novels, much of Pitcairn’s Island is not writen from the perspective of any particular crewman - instead the author follow each of the colonists indiscriminatly in the third-person.

The story starts several weeks after they left Tahiti, merely hours before landing at the namesake island.

With this small group of Bounty mutineers, and a number of Tahitian men and women who chose to accompany them, it was amazing to see how they all worked together to create a home on Pitcairn’s Island and thrive there.

It surprised me how harmonious the colony was, white men and Polynesians, who are so different to one another! Some barely able to grasp the others’ language, and a few in total ignorance of it.
Even some of thier customs seemed strange to the other (this confusion going both ways) yet they made it work and created thier own culture and routine.

I found it a little difficult to catch onto what was being said sometimes - theres a lot of broken English in the crews speech, particularly in the part of Mills, Martin, McCoy, Quintal and Williams.
It seems the author wrote thier language phonetically, rather than actually writing what they would be saying. It took a while to understand sometimes what was said (particularly more difficult were when two or more of these people conversed together, and in such a small group of men, this was all too common)

Sometimes I could work out the words by sounding them aloud in my head, other times I could only make an educated guess at what was said based on the context of the conversation, and sometimes I was just lost (luckily, this last was quite a rare occasion)

So many times in this book I thought ‘this would bring on a war between the two peoples’, but the fact that so many people strove to keep the peace (often Englishmen standing up to thier fellows in defence of the Polynesians) it was quite a testiment to thier little colony.

It was the division of land in the end that brought an end to the peace, the violence fuelled by the previos acts )that could have started a conflict in thier own right).
What followed was quite a bloody masacre of the white men, though with all the Polynesian men’s careful planning and skill at that kind of warfare, it ended as I wouldn’t have expected.
All I can say is that hell hath no fury . . .

The story then leapt ahead many years, to where the island inhabitants are discovered by the American ship Topaz.
Now reverting to the first person, the last surviving mutineer Alex Smith recounts the colonies’ history to the Mate of the Topaz.

It was a good novel, though at times I felt it was a bit tiresome to read, and that the book could have skipped ahead a few weeks or months without it affecting the story.
The final chapters, describing his lessons in reading and writing, finding God, and teaching everything to the mothers and the children seemed to go on without end.

It made a lot of sense to me, having three novels to give the full picture of the mutiny - each for the 3 groups of men.

1. The men who settled in Tahiti, after thier failed attempt to settle anywhere else after the mutiny
2. The men who were set adrift in the ships’ launch after the mutiny
3. The men who settled on Pitcairn’s Island after the mutiny

Separating thier stories in this way gave each branch the fullest room to breath.
As I said in my review of Mutiny on the Bounty, there are many novels on the mutiny by many different authors. But having read this trilogy, I cannot see how the three different branches can be properly captured in a single book?

Mutiny on the Bounty I certainly felt was the best of the three, but that would likely still be true if the story had followed Bligh or Christian and the mutineers, rather than those left on Tahiti.
Reading the full story, beginning at thier departure from England, made that book the better one, as it gave the full story of the Bounty before the mutiny.

But to get the full story, you have to read all three novels, and I would highly recommend them

[Talbot Hook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was my favorite entry in the trilogy.

In one sense, the plot is not at all surprising; after all, when you self-select for society based upon mutiny, what can you expect? When a "community" is formed of ne'er-do-wells, brigands, and traitors, can any amount of social engineering stay the consequences? When you unlock the doors of Eden and populate it with demons (read: humans), are you surprised when it goes up in flames? I wasn't, and yet the book was haunting and thrilling by turns. Two of my primary religious frameworks came online powerfully during this reading: my Christian heritage, which encouraged me to look at this as a masterclass in sin, mercy, and tribulation, and my Buddhist practice, which slapped me back to the more basic reality of greed, anger, and ignorance. Indeed, these things explain almost all the plot. Ignorance is at the backbone of most of the mutineers' suffering (often through unanalyzed attachment to land, slaves, and women), though anger (over slights, unfairness, and exclusion) and greed (again, land and women) certainly play a role. It is at once entirely reasonable how things went down on Pitcairn, but it is also entirely unreasonable. With a modicum of reflection or virtue, the proverbial shit would've never hit the fan.

The beautiful, haunting part of the book is not only in the unspoiled Arcadia (though et in arcadia ego) and the initial bonhomie between peoples, but in the passage of time and the melancholy of the sea. The final pages are exquisite, as the narrative is recaptured and retold, allowing the reader to look calmly and nostalgically back to the initial pages of the first book, as the Bounty departs England. To see the beginning by the end is a lovely thing: perhaps my favorite thing about a string of books or a tightly-knit trilogy. The natural flow of generations — allowing the youth to have their turn at the earth — is also a theme very close to my heart. It is part of the hope intrinsic to having children: the thought that something worthwhile might spring from the damned.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent final book for The Bounty Trilogy. The mutineers plus some native men and women leave Tahiti in search of a remote island for refuge. They find Pitcairn Island which provided everything that they sought. They establish a viable community. However, due to racism, greed (approaching averace) and alcohol, the community disintegrates and most of the men and all of the native men are murdered.

Only through the native women, who attempted to leave and ultimately built a fortress to protect themselves and their children from the few remaining men, was civilization return to the island. I both liked and hated most of the male characters; I admired, the female.

This is a very disturbing book. It does not portray a positive view of the human race.

[Karla Baldeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review on Spanish.
Un final completo con el recuento de los amotinados de la Bounty.
Debo decir que he sentido más compasión por ellos y su falta de disciplina que de los demás personajes. Un momento de descontrol los llevó a tomar la decisión fatal y el líder, Christian, nunca dejó de arrepentirse por ello. No creo que el final que tuvieron fuera equivocado de todas formas (que me gustó la justicia para sus contrapartes femeninas), pero sí hubo el suficiente drama como para lamentar el desperdicio de vidas.
En fin, recomiendo esta trilogía a todas las personas que les guste la historia y las adaptaciones ficticias.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sequel to Mutiny on the Bounty. Fletcher Christian and eight other white men, along with six Polynesian men and twelve Polynesian women, found an idyllic, remote island where they could live out their days in peace, away from the long arm of British law. But add it up. They were short three women. That only started their troubles, though. The story is brutal, and horrifying, and true. I couldn’t put it down.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Epic, it's hard to imagine that this really happened, but it did! One does not need to read the first two books of the trilogy to read this, in fact I had no desire to do so. This could be made into a intriguing film by Spielberg or some great film maker.

It was not a book I would have naturally picked up on my own accord, but an avid reader suggested it and I took note and gave it a whorl!