There are many stories of sailors being forced off their ships by mutineers and made to sail in a tiny boat, with not nearly enough provisions, toward home.The heartlessness of these mutineers is unimaginable. To send men off to their almost certain demise and torment from their own ships into uncharted waters is more than the mind can comprehend.
On April 28, 1789, the Bounty of the English navy was commandeered by mutineers. The captain, William Bligh, and 18 of his men were evicted from their boat in the ship’s 23-foot launch near the Friendly Islands with very few supplies. Men Against the Sea is the story of their 3616 mile journey to safety through new territory around the island of Australia, which was inhabited by savages, and the islands surrounding it by cannibals. Their endurance, and the skill of Captain Bligh under the extreme strain of the sail, is incredible.
Men Against the Sea is one book in a trilogy. The other two books are more concerned with the Bounty and the mutineers themselves. Standing alone, Men Against the Sea would need more background and surrounding story to make it, in my opinion, an even better book, so I suggest reading the other books in the series as well, if only to help complete Men Against the Sea and for no other reason. Alone, it is certainly worth reading as a history, even with its fictitious character motives, or as a fiction, even with its bare story. It has a feeling of achievement and fulfillment that cannot be denied, no matter the accuracy or depth.
Nordhoff and Hall based their story upon the real mutiny aboard the Bounty and Captain Bligh’s notes of their voyage across the sea. They re-tell it from the view of the ship’s surgeon, Thomas Ledward, who was one of the 19 castaways. The Captain’s notes could not contain every event that happened to the men in the launch, so some details needed to be made up, but the plot is based on real events. Ledward’s view of the situation works to illustrate the journey in a different light, separate from just bare-bone facts; much of his thoughts revolve around his views of the other men around him and the amazing deeds of Bligh. Over their 41 days at sea, all the men are reduced to near-starvation. Ledward, being the surgeon, seems interested in the actual state, physical and mental, of the men, and he, along with everyone else aboard the launch, was awe-struck by Bligh. He was put through the same hardships as all the other men, but he kept his iron will and strength through the whole journey. In the greatest test of human endurance in recorded nautical history, he remained strong. He was a “beacon” to all.
The story of the men aboard the launch is certainly a wonderful one, but it may be said that Nordhoff and Hall went too far in their extension of the captain’s very brief daily log to this amazing story. There is no way we could know that the men aboard the launch viewed Bligh as Nordhoff and Hall say the did, or that it was thanks, and only thanks, to the crew’s immediate obeying of Bligh’s orders that they all remained alive, simply because there were no other records taken while at sea besides that of Bligh himself. Nordhoff and Hall certainly did a great job writing their story, complete with mental transformations and inspirations within the characters, to the point that we feel we are in the boat suffering with the men, but very little of this except the weather and some of the major details can be thought of as actually occurring. The story is still wonderful, but it seems sad to me that, although the bare facts of the journey were recorded, we can’t know what of the rest of it depicts what actually happened. A story such as this is certainly believable; Nordhoff and Hall weave it in such a way to make it so. Even though it would reduce the quality of the book and the effectiveness of the story, I feel they might have produced a much more realistic book by sticking solely to the facts of Bligh’s log and written it from his point of view. However, they didn’t and we must be content with their interpretation of the voyage of the Bounty’s launch.
Nordhoff and Hall’s use of Ledward’s voice is very effective. He was, throughout the journey, one of the weakest, so he could tell about the acts of the strongest from one unequal. He was also a smart man, so he was able to read the motives and guess at the mental state of everyone else. Since Ledward himself gave no account of the voyage, his thoughts and actions could be made to depict the story as Nordhoff and Hall saw fit. Ledward never dives too far into the lives or thoughts of any of the characters, leaving room for the reader’s interpretation as well. As just a story, I feel the authors should have dove deeper into the motives of all the characters if they dove at all. As a history, however, they should leave it at a minimum. Their balance of facts and fiction is nice, but it doesn’t really fit either one of those categories.
All in all, Men Against the Sea is a wonderful book. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys epics, historical accounts, or just a good classic. It seems odd to me that it remains in a strange state of limbo between fiction and historical account, but it is still a great read. I enjoyed it, and plan to read the other books in the series.