James Morrison (mutineer)

James Morrison (1760 - 1807) was a British seaman and mutineer who took part in the Mutiny on the Bounty.

James Morrison was a native of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland where his father was a merchant and land entrepreneur. He joined the navy at 18, serving as Clerk on the "Suffolk", Midshipman on the "Termagant", and Acting Gunner on the "Hind". In 1783, he passed his Master Gunner's examination.

James Morrison was the Boatswain's Mate on board the "Bounty". The Master Gunner's position having been filled two days prior to his application, he may have taken the lesser post because of his eagerness to go along on the 'scientific expedition.'

After the mutiny, Morrison was one of 16 mutineers who returned to Tahiti after the failed attempt to build a colony on Tubuai, while Fletcher Christian and 8 others sailed the "Bounty" on to Pitcairn Island.

Along with the others who then lived in Tahiti, he was captured here by Captain Edward Edwards of Pandora on 29 March 1791, and brought back to England for court-martial.

While on Tahiti, he led an eight-month effort to build a schooner with which he secretly hoped to get to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies and from there return to England. He kept this to himself until the project was nearing completion, when he took a few others into his confidence. The schooner completed and christened "Resolution", they spent many days boiling seawater to get salt sufficient to cure hundreds of pounds of pork for which they in turn had to build casks. In the end the voyage was given up as impracticable owing to their lack of navigation instruments, problems with the schooner's rigging and any way to carry sufficient water. However when the "Pandora" departed with the mutineers, Captain Edward Edwards renamed the schooner ("Matavai") re-rigged it with canvas and rope from the "Pandora"'s stores, manned the schooner with some of his own men and took her along as a tender. Six weeks later the "Pandora" and the "Matavai" became separated, and Edwards, giving her and her crew up for lost, sailed on. The "Pandora" later came to grief on the Great Barrier Reef, and the surviving crew and prisoners -99 men in all- had to use the ships boats to continue on. When they reached Samarang, Java, the "Matavai" and her crew were there. Having arrived in Surabaya five weeks earlier, they were making their way to Batavia (Jakarta) under a military escort, the Dutch governor suspecting them as 'pirates' from the "Bounty" ! Edwards eventually purchased the schooner by paying the crew their share of the prize money, and gave it to the governor of Batavia as a gift.

At the court-martial judgement, delivered on 18 September 1792, Morrison was sentenced to be hanged. However the court recommended his mercy to the King, and, perhaps aided by a letter testifying to his good character from Captain Stirling of the "Termagant", he was pardoned on 26 October 1792, along with Peter Heywood. While incarcerated, Morrison wrote an account describing the "Bounty"'s journey and the island and customs of Tahiti. He was also very critical of Bligh's behavior toward his officers. He was even more critical of the officers at the time of the mutiny, writing 'The behaviour of the Officers on this Occasion was dastardly beyond description none of them ever making the least attempt to rescue the ship...'

Following his pardon, Morrison returned to naval service. He reached the rank of Master Gunner, and saw action in the Mediterranean. After serving as a gunnery instructor in Plymouth, he joined Sir Thomas Troubridge in the "Blenheim", which sank in 1807 in a tropical cyclone off Madagascar with the loss of all on board.

References

* Caroline Alexander, "The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty", Viking Penguin, 2003, hardcover, 512 pages, ISBN 0-670-03133-X

External links

* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Bounty/morrisontranscript.html Statement of defence] Morrison gave at his court-martial.
* [http://www.fatefulvoyage.com/trial/trialMMorrison.html Complete defense] Morrison presented at the court-martial of the mutineers.
* [http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/morrison/title.html Second part of Morrison's journal] describing the island and customs of Tahiti.
* [http://www.fatefulvoyage.com/morrison/morrisonAHowell.html Letter] written awaiting Court-Martial.
* [http://www.fatefulvoyage.com/morrison/morrisonBMemo.html Morrison's Memorandum and Particulars] respecting the Bounty and her Crew.
* [http://www.fatefulvoyage.com/morrison/morrisonHome.html Complete Morrison Journal.]
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