Eric Shackle's Column

By Eric Shackle

William Bligh had kidney stones

The Bounty Voyage Re-enactment has just sailed safely past Resolution Island, on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Her four-man crew, led by Tasmanian adventurer Don McIntyre, is being filmed for world TV screening.

The original Captain Bligh had a short fuse, and swore profusely. Can you visualise him squatting over the side of his small open boat, as he relieved himself while the boat lurched from side to side?

HMS Resolution was a sloop of the Royal Navy, and the ship in which Captain James Cook made his second and third voyages of exploration in the Pacific. She impressed him enough that he called her "the ship of my choice", and "the fittest for service of any I have seen."

It was probably about the same size as Captain William Bligh's boat, but it carried many more sails.

©May 25, 2010 ERIC SHACKLE at 6:30 PM Tuesday

Editor's Note: See Shackle's May/June story on the ReEnactment of the sailing of The Bounty with full details. The voyage was successfully accomplished and more info can be found in Shackles online blog Life Begins at 80