A Voyage to the South Sea

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CHAPTER 1.

Plan of the Expedition.
Outfit and Occurrences to the time of leaving England.
Description of the Breadfruit.

1787.

The King having been graciously pleased to comply with a request from the
merchants and planters interested in his Majesty's West India possessions
that the breadfruit tree might be introduced into those islands, a vessel
proper for the undertaking was bought and taken into dock at Deptford to
be provided with the necessary fixtures and preparations for executing
the object of the voyage. These were completed according to a plan of my
much honoured friend, Sir Joseph Banks, which in the event proved the
most advantageous that could have been adopted for the intended purpose.

August 16.

The ship was named the Bounty: I was appointed to command her on the 16th
of August 1787. Her burthen was nearly two hundred and fifteen tons; her
extreme length on deck ninety feet ten inches; extreme breadth
twenty-four feet three inches; and height in the hold under the beams at
the main hatchway ten feet three inches. In the cockpit were the cabins
of the surgeon, gunner, botanist, and clerk, with a steward-room and
storerooms. The between decks was divided in the following manner: the
great cabin was appropriated for the preservation of the plants and
extended as far forward as the after hatchway. It had two large
skylights, and on each side three scuttles for air, and was fitted with a
false floor cut full of holes to contain the garden-pots in which the
plants were to be brought home. The deck was covered with lead, and at
the foremost corners of the cabin were fixed pipes to carry off the water
that drained from the plants into tubs placed below to save it for future
use. I had a small cabin on one side t