In The Wake Of Captain Bligh

A former ship’s officer, Mr. Douglas Olifent, of Brisbane, plans to follow in Captain William Bligh’s wake by retracing the route the Bounty castaways took in 1789.

Mr. Olifent is building an open boat in which he will be cast adrift near Tofua Island, Tonga, on April 28. This is where Bligh and 18 companions started their epic voyage of 44 days and 3,700 miles on April 28, 1789, following the mutiny in the Bounty led by Fletcher Christian.

On their voyage, Bligh and his companions landed on Tofua, then passed through the Fiji Group, the New Hebrides, the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait before reaching Koepang, Timor. Bligh’s launch was 23 ft long, with a 6 ft 9 in. beam.

Mr. Olifent has set the masts well forward in his craft, like those of Bligh’s boat.

He plans to make only one landing—on Restoration Island, near Torres Strait, “Bligh went ashore there on May 29 and I hope I will also land there then for it will be my birthday,” he says.

Mr. Harry Harper, secretary of the Royal Australian Historical Society, says Mr. Olifent’s adventure will be one of the most exciting ever undertaken by an Australian; while Mr. K. C. Cameron, secretary of the Queensland Historical Society, says historians throughout the world will be watching Mr. Olifent’s progress with “immense interest.” • Our illustration is Robert Dodd’s famous painting of Captain Bligh and his companions being cast adrift.