Fletcher Christian, for all his earlier favored…
January 1789 CE
He is often humiliated by the captain—sometimes in front of the crew and the Tahitians—for real or imagined slackness, while severe punishments are handed out to men whose carelessness has led to the loss or theft of equipment.
Floggings, rarely administered during the outward voyage, now become increasingly common.
On January 5, 1789 three members of the crew—Charles Churchill, John Millward and William Muspratt—desert, taking a small boat, arms and ammunition.
Muspratt had recently been flogged for neglect.
Among the belongings Churchill leaves on the ship is a list of names that Bligh interprets as possible accomplices in a desertion plot—the captain later will assert that the names included those of Christian and Heywood.
Bligh is persuaded that his protégé is not planning to desert, and the matter is dropped.
Churchill, Millward, and Muspratt are found after three weeks and, on their return to the ship, are flogged.