April 28 — Bounty Mutiny and Botany Bay
April 28 — Fletcher Christian and the Bounty
1789: Mutiny at sea, off Tofua
On April 28, 1789 Fletcher Christian led the mutiny aboard HMS Bounty while the ship sat in the South Pacific near Tofua, Tonga. The mission had been to carry breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies. The mutineers set Captain William Bligh and 18 loyal crew adrift in a small cutter. Bligh navigated over 3,500 nautical miles to Timor in an open boat, a feat of seamanship that echoed for generations among mariners. Some mutineers later made a hidden home on Pitcairn Island in 1790.
1770: Cook, Endeavour and Botany Bay
A day later in the calendar, on April 29, 1770 Captain James Cook’s HMS Endeavour made landfall at Botany Bay on the east coast of Australia. Naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected plants and marine specimens that fed Europe’s curiosity about Pacific life and shore ecology. The voyage mapped reefs, logged tides and recorded species that would change natural history collections back home.
Practical saltwater lessons for UK anglers
These stories are maritime not myths. They teach the same basics every coastal angler knows: respect tides, read charts, and trust reliable kit. Carry a stout rod for rocky marks, slip into warm waders for late spring estuary work, and never underestimate a changing tide.
Recommended: waterproof neoprene waders