In 1789, sailors on HMS Bounty, which had been sent to carry breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies, grew tired of naval discipline. They mutinied against their commanding officer, Lt. William Bligh, set him adrift on the ship’s launch, and disappeared into the depths of the Pacific. Nine of them, accompanied by 16 Tahitians, eventually found the uninhabited island of Pitcairn and set fire to the Bounty. Their descendants have lived on that rocky mound ever since.