Wonderlijke avonturen van een Chinees, gevolgd door Muiterij aan boord der 'Bounty'

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

24773

Title

Wonderlijke avonturen van een Chinees, gevolgd door Muiterij aan boord der 'Bounty'

Language

nl

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

Jules Verne's Dutch-language adventure tale follows Captain Bligh's mutiny aboard the Bounty and the subsequent harrowing survival of his crew across the Pacific, alongside the rogue officers' life as castaways on Tahiti. A gripping historical narrative blending maritime drama with exotic exploration.

Summary up to 500 words

The narrative begins with the calm morning of April 28, 1789, aboard the HMS Bounty, a ship carrying breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the West Indies. Tensions have long simmered between the harsh, suspicious Captain Bligh and his crew. Suddenly, Fletcher Christian, the first lieutenant, leads a mutiny. Bligh is stripped of command, bound, and forced into a small launch with eighteen loyal crew members. They are stripped of most supplies, leaving them with only two hundred and twenty-five liters of water, some biscuits, and a few bottles of wine. Bligh and his men set sail in the launch, aiming for Timor. Their journey is fraught with peril. They endure a violent storm, severe thirst, and the temptation to abandon hope. After fourteen days at sea, they reach the coast of New Holland (Australia). Despite the dangers of the local inhabitants and the terrain, Bligh maintains discipline. They gather oysters, crabs, and fresh water, and Bligh uses a lens to start fires for cooking. However, morale remains low, and signs of mutiny reappear among the starving men. Bligh suppresses these threats with force, demonstrating his resolve to reach safety. After a grueling three thousand six hundred and eighteen-mile voyage, they sight Timor on June 12. The crew is welcomed by the Dutch at Coupang, where they recover for two months before Bligh secures passage to Batavia and eventually returns to England in March 1790. His survival and the Admiralty's outrage at the mutiny lead to the dispatch of the HMS Pandora to hunt down the mutineers. Meanwhile, the mutineers, including Christian, Stewart, and Peter Heywood, sail the Bounty to Tahiti. They live among the islanders, engaging in piracy and forming relationships with locals. Two mutineers, Churchill and Thompson, die in a fight or from illness. Others, like Morrison and Millward, plan to build a boat to escape to civilization. They construct a vessel named the Resolution but lack sails. The HMS Pandora arrives in 1791 to arrest the remaining mutineers. Stewart and Heywood claim innocence but are imprisoned in a cage on the ship's quarterdeck, labeled the 'Pandora's Box.' The Pandora and the Resolution sail to hunt the mutineers in the Friendly Islands. The Resolution disappears near the Chatham Islands. The Pandora, carrying the prisoners, strikes a coral reef and sinks, killing thirty-one crew members and four mutineers. The survivors reach Timor and are eventually brought to England. In 1792, a court-martial in England tries the remaining mutineers. Four are acquitted, while six are sentenced to death. Four are hanged, but Stewart and Heywood are pardoned after their innocence is recognized. The fate of the Bounty itself remains a mystery. The story concludes with a historical note: in 1814, British ships discover Pitcairn Island, where the surviving mutineers, led by Christian, had settled, marrying into the local population and establishing a new society, effectively erasing the Bounty from the map.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24773.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg24773.epub

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Categories

• Adventure
• Classics