Bligh, along with 18 other men, were forced into a small, open boat with only five days' worth of food and water, left in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Miraculously, Bligh expertly sailed to the Dutch settlement of Coupang on the island of Timor, with his crew surviving the 42-day voyage.

The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch.