This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Wine bottle aboard HMS Bounty sells for £2,200
A wine bottle believed to have been aboard HMS Bounty when the ship was commandeered by a rebel crew has sold for £2,200 at auction.
As reported by the BBC, the bottle was part of a collection owned by Lt William Bligh, who captained HMS Bounty on its mission to the South Pacific in 1789.
When the vessel was taken over by a rebel crew, Bligh navigated HMS Bounty 4,000 miles to safety with 18 men aboard, only one of whom perished.
Bligh’s collection of items went under the hammer for £19,960 at Essex-based auction house Sworders of Stansted.
The empty wine bottle was only expected to garner a hammer price of £200 to £300, but smashed its auction estimate, selling for £2,200.
As reported by the BBC, the items in the collection were amassed by Mutiny on the Bounty enthusiast John O’Conner, who died last year.
A pocket watched owned by Bligh was expected to sell for £5,000, but the item was withdrawn from the sale by his family, who wanted to keep it as an heirloom.
HMS Bounty was on a mission to collect bread-fruit trees from Tahiti and take them to plantations in the West Indies when disaffected crewmen aboard the ship, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the vessel.
The incident has been captured on the silver screen twice, in a 1935 film starring Clark Gable, and a 1962 picture featuring Marlon Brando.
Related news
A 'challenging yet surprising' vintage for Centre-Loire in 2024