The Bounty: by Caroline Alexander.

About the Bounty, this time exonerating Captain Bligh - although the court martial did go against him in England.

Captain Bligh had been given the difficult job of bringing breadfruit plants back from Tahiti to West Indies for planting them there so workers could be fed at a fraction of the price (why they did not think of bananas is difficult to understand, perhaps exotic was the key - anyway breadfruit and related plants were easily obtainable from Asia, India specifically, in all likelihood) but he was not satisfied with this difficult job. He wanted to make a record sail around the world, which in those days meant going around Cape Horn at least once. Bounty tried it on the way out, found it far too difficult - storms in Drake's Passage are notorious and going around is more difficult if anything - so then, after a month of battling it out with winds and storms at the Cape Horn, they turned around and went via Cape of Good Hope instead, sailing across Indian Ocean.

All this had tired out the men, and relaxing in Tahiti was something they were not willing to exchange too soon for sailing again, what with low quality of food and discipline required to return through two of the three oceans no matter which way they sailed (Bligh perhaps did still dream of a world record?) so even without making a villain out of Bligh likely it was not fault of the men to have no part of returning. They did stand to face hanging for mutiny those days, if caught, so a decision had to be made as to how to avoid being hanged for being free.

This was done with setting those that wished to return on a small boat adrift and setting the Bounty afire to avoid being caught, and later sailing with men and women from Tahiti to another island. Which became a legend and still is.

Pitcairn is one place more difficult to go to and usually applications for visit take a year or two to bring fruit, if they are not denied outright. Often stamp collectors send an envelope with money and return address just to have an envelope with Pitcairn stamps and cancellation.