<P> The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty took place in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789 . Led by Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, disaffected crewmen seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and 18 loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch . The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island . Bligh, meanwhile, completed a voyage of more than 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) in the launch to reach safety and then began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice . </P> <P> Bounty had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies . A five - month layover in Tahiti, during which many of the men lived ashore and formed relationships with native Polynesians, proved harmful to discipline . Relations between Bligh and his crew deteriorated after he began handing out increasingly harsh punishments, criticism, and abuse, Christian being a particular target . After three weeks back at sea, Christian and others forced Bligh from the ship . Twenty - five men remained on board afterward, including loyalists held against their will and others for whom there was no room in the launch . </P>

When did mutiny on the bounty take place