Early morning, April 1789. Captain Bligh is abruptly dragged from his cabin. Wrists bound, bayonet pressed to his chest, he and a few loyal sailors are forced into a tiny launch and set adrift on the vast Pacific Ocean. This far from land, no-one is likely to survive for long.
History remembers Captain Bligh as a cruel, petty tyrant. The reality is more complicated. Bligh championed rational thought and showed his men great kindness on that famous voyage on the Bounty – yet it ended in mutiny. So what went wrong?
This is the third episode in a four-part series about how to succeed without being a jerk. It’s based on David Bodanis’ book The Art of Fairness: The Power of Decency in a World Turned Mean.