Charles Churchill

Charles Churchill (1759–1790) was the master at arms on board HMAV Bounty during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti to transplant breadfruit to the British colonies in the West Indies. During a mutiny on the ship, Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian seized command of the ship from Bligh on 28 April 1789. Churchill was an active member of the mutiny, being a member of Fletcher Christian's loyalists that arrested Bligh in his cabin.

Early life and navy career Churchill was born in Manchester in 1759. Little else is recorded of his early life in England. Between August and the October of 1787, Bountys crew was being assigned for the voyage to Tahiti. On 7 September 1787, Churchill signed on as the ships corporal, a task including the assistance of maintaining the order amongst the crew.

On Tahiti and fate When Christian sailed the Bounty to Tahiti for the final time before heading to Pitcairn, Churchill along with 15 other crew members, voted to stay. He had an ally, Vehiatua who was a minor chief of Taiarapu, a part of south east Tahiti, brother in law of the Tahitian King Otoo. Churchill actively participated in the ongoing political conflicts between the island districts, and with weapons acquired from the Bounty, he contributed in changing the relatively non-lethal nature of the disputes between chiefdoms into bloody slaughter.

Portrayals Churchill has been portrayed by:

Pat Flaherty (1935) Mutiny on the Bounty Liam Neeson (1984) The Bounty