Fletcher Christian

Fletcher Christian (September 25, 1764 – October 3, 1793) was a Master's Mate on board the Bounty during William Bligh's fateful voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants. It was Christian who seized command of the Bounty from Bligh in 1789.

Fletcher was born at the Moorland Close farmstead in Cumberland, England. His family, which was originally from the Isle of Man, was relatively well-to-do and controlled several properities. However, Fletcher's father died when he was eighteen, and Fletcher went to sea in order to support his family.

He sailed with Bligh twice. After the mutiny, he visited Tahiti where he married Maimiti, the daughter of the chief; the mutineers and a number of Tahitians then settled on Pitcairn Island where the Bounty was broken up for firewood and to construct homes. When the island was next visited by British sailors in 1814, only one mutineer, John Adams, was found alive, along with Tahitians and the children of the other mutineers. Adams and Maimiti claimed Christian had been murdered. He was survived by Maimiti and his son, Thursday October Christian, who is the ancestor of almost everybody surnamed Christian on Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands, as well as the many descendants who have moved to Australia and New Zealand.

Rumours have persisted for more than two hundred years that Fletcher's murder may have been faked, that he had left the island and made it back to England.

See Mutiny on the Bounty for a more detailed account of this famous incident.

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