Peter Heywood

Galleon

'Farewell to thee, Heywood! a truer one never

Hath exercised rule o'er the sons of the wave.

The seamen who served thee would serve thee forever,

Who sway'd but ne'er fettered, the hearts of the brave.

REQUIEM POEM DEDICATED TO P.HEYWOOD, FEBRUARY 1831



It was 27th August 1787, when, resplendent in his new uniform, fifteen year old Peter Heywood climbed the gangway and boarded the HMS 'Bounty' at Deptford Yard. The ship was being refitted for her journey to Tahiti, where she was to take on board a cargo of breadfruit plants, then deliver them to Jamaica where they were to cultivated as food for the slaves on the plantations.
Heywood was the youngest of three midshipmen aboard and this voyage was to be the first, and the most eventful, of his life.

Under the command of Captain William Bligh, The 'Bounty' left Spithead on 23rd December 1787, and set a course across the Atlantic to Cape Horn - but ran straight into huge storms which raged for weeks.William Bligh Day after day, mountainous seas whipped by an unceasing westerly wind, crashed over the 'Bounty's' wooden decks, soaking everything aboard - including the precious ships rations. When Captain Bligh ordered that the 'Bounty', then one hundred leagues off the coast of Brazil, should change course and sail with the wind eastward to Africa; and that until they reached land every man's daily food and grog allowance would be cut to two-thirds, the crew - already weakened, dispirited, and showing the first signs of scurvy, began to mutter their dissent.

When the 'Bounty' finally dropped anchor in the coral sands off Tahiti on the25th October 1788, she had covered 27,086 miles, and not a man aboard would have willingly travelled a mile further.


Extracts from the letters of Fletcher Christian

EdenHaving obtained a promise from Chief Tinah that we should be furnished with an abundance of bread-fruit trees for a present to King George I, I was sent by the captain with a party to erect tents ashore...

The women of Otaheite are not only constitutionally votaries of venus but join to the charms of person such a happy cheerfulness of temper, and such an engaging manner; that their allurements are perfectly irristible. In a very short time, every man aboard was provided with his mistress and I cordially ackowledge that I had my favourite as well as the rest. Indeed it is but justice to confess, that our subsequent conspiracy in a great measure owed its rise to these connections.


The infamous mutiny took place as dawn broke on the 29th April 1789. The 'Bounty' was only a few days out from Tahiti on her journey to Jamaica.

Before Bligh and eighteen loyal sailors who accompanied him were cast adrift in an open boat, he appealed to Peter Heywood to raise a party in his favour and retake the vessel. Peter Heywood laughed at the absurdity of the request, and it was that laugh that sealed his fate. While the 'Bounty' sailed back to Tahiti - and eventually on to Pitcairn Island - Bligh survived a harrowing crossing of some 3000 miles, and eventually returned to England safely. The Admirality immediatley dispatched HMS Pandora to Tahiti to arrest the mutineers and the ship rounded the point and anchored in the shallows off Tahiti on 26th March 1791.
Heywood, who with a number of others had remained on the Island, was the first to paddle out, to introduce himself to the ship's Captain. Straightaway, much to his surprise, he was clamped in chains and thrown in the brig. The other 'mutineers' were duely apprehended and dealt with in a similar fashion, and 'Pandora' set sail for home.

Pandora Sinks

THE WRECK OF THE 'PANDORA'

From a sketch by Peter Heywood

On the 28th August 1791, as the ship approached the Endeavour Strait at the north-east tip of Australia the worst happened: a strong current forced the keel upon the rocks. Violent and repeated shocks shook the ship.
She lost her rudder and nine feet of water flooded her hold. Heywood barely escaped with his life though four of his fellow prisoners and thirty one of the Pandora's crew, went down with her.


Peter Heywood, and the nine other surviving crew members of the 'Bounty', returned to England aboard HMS 'Gorgon' on 19th June 1792. They had been away for almost five and a half years and had spent the last year of that in chains. Their Court-martial, on board His Majesty's ship 'Duke' in Portsmouth Habour, commenced three months later on 12th August 1792, with the Vice Admiral of the Blue, the Right Honourable Lord Hood presiding.

Though protesting his innocence, Midshipman Peter Heywood, was found guilty of mutiny under article 19 clause 1 of the Naval Article of War, and sentenced to death. Five weeks later, a Royal Warrant giving him a full and free pardon was granted, just in the nick of time.



The Sexton's Tales
'swashes its buckle'
in episode 2 Series III

'MUTINY, MR HEYWOOD?'


Airdate: 4th June 1997