Bounty was a packet ship Ch: Pump ship, packet ship! Sailing on a cruisin' trip Ch: In the South Pacific! Billy Blight, that silly man Was the master in command. He was growling day and night, Whether he was wrong or right. On the Bounty were the rules, Not for soft an' silly fools. An' the answer to complains. Handcuffs an' the iron chains. Spittin' on the quarterdeck, Punishment -- a broken neck. There were troubles every day, Many sailors ran away. An' at last that Billy Blight, With his crew began to fight. Brawling, kickin' everywhere, Iron pins flew thro' the air. Mates an' sailors in the night, Overpowered Billy Blight. They put Billy Blight afloat; With his madness in a boat: Bounty then went out of sight, Left along was Billy Blight. Billy Blight he reached the coast, But the Bounty she was lost. Many gales have crossed the sea, Since the Bounty went away. Never was there heard a word, From the crew that stayed on board.

This song tells the famous story of the mutiny on the Bounty, though Captain Bligh is evidently pronounced “blight” here. Captain Bligh lost control of the ship to mutineers on April 28, 1789. He and eighteen loyal men were set adrift in the ship’s launch and sailed it some 3,600 nautical miles to Timor. Back in England, he set about bringing the crew to justice. In 1791 HMS Pandora found fourteen of the men on Tahiti, but Fletcher Christian and the rest had hidden on Pitcairn Island, where they went undiscovered until February 1808, when the American sealer Mayhew Folger called there. The final lines of this shanty suggest the date of authorship may therefore be prior to 1808.

The HMS Bounty began its career as the Bethia, a small merchant vessel in 1784. As a collier, it was to carry coal and not the mail and passengers of a packet ship. The British Navy purchased and renamed the ship for botanical missions in 1787.

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