Captain Bligh coconut bowl, cup and bullet

This bowl was used by long-suffering seafarer Lieutenant William Bligh (1754-1817) after the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789. The bowl is carved from a smoothed and hollowed coconut shell and inscribed with Bligh's initials, the date, and on reverse side the phrase "the cup I eat my miserable allowance out of". This cup was used by Bligh to during the boat voyage from Tofua to Timor in the 'Bounty's' launch - about 3, 900 miles. The bowl is today the part of the collection of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK.

Captain Bligh wrote:

I generally broke mine [bread] into small pieces, and eat it in my allowance of water, out of a coconut shell, with a spoon: economically avoiding to take too large a piece at a time, so that I was as long at dinner as if it had been a much more plentiful meal.

The cup is made of the bone and the bullet was used by Bligh to measure out the bread ration of the 18 men who remaind faithful to their captain after the mutiny.

 

 

 

 

 

Artist / Maker:

William Bligh

 

Date:

1789

 

Size:

102 mm x 127 mm