Unable to find another midshipman assignment, Christian decided to join the British merchant fleet and applied for a berth on board William Bligh's ship Britannia. Īfter Eurydice had returned from India, Christian was reverted to midshipman and paid off from the Royal Navy. The ship's muster shows Christian's conduct was more than satisfactory because "some seven months out from England, he had been promoted from midshipman to master's mate". The muster rolls of HMS Eurydice indicate Christian was signed on for a 21-month voyage to India. Christian next became a midshipman on the sixth-rate post ship HMS Eurydice and was made Master's Mate six months after the ship put to sea. He served for over a year on a third-rate ship-of-the-line along with his future commander, William Bligh, who was posted as the ship's sixth lieutenant. See here for a comparison of assignments to William Blighįletcher Christian began his naval career at a late age, joining the Royal Navy as a cabin boy when he was already seventeen years old (the average age for this position was between 12 to 15).
His mother Ann died on the Isle of Man in 1819. It is commonly suggested that the two were "school friends" in fact, Christian was six years older than Wordsworth. One of his younger contemporaries there was Cockermouth native William Wordsworth.
#MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY MEL GIBSON FREE#
Christian spent seven years at the Cockermouth Free School from the age of nine. The three elder Christian sons managed to arrange a £40 (equal to £5,719 today) per year annuity for their mother, allowing the family to live in genteel poverty. Moorland Close was lost and Ann and her three younger children were forced to flee to the Isle of Man, to their relative's estate, where English creditors had no power. By 1779, when Fletcher was fifteen, Ann had run up a debt of nearly £6,500 (equal to £929,377 today), and faced the prospect of debtors' prison. Ann proved herself grossly irresponsible with money. Charles died in 1768 when Fletcher was not yet four. half castle, half farmstead." The property can be seen to the north of the Cockermouth to Egremont A5086 road. Ĭharles's marriage to Ann brought with it the small property of Moorland Close, "a quadrangle pile of buildings. Fletcher's father's side had originated from the Isle of Man and most of his paternal great-grandfathers were historic Deemsters, their original family surname McCrystyn.įletcher was the brother to Edward and Humphrey, being the three sons of Charles Christian of Moorland Close and of the large Ewanrigg Hall estate in Dearham, Cumberland, an attorney-at-law descended from Manx gentry, and his wife Ann Dixon. Christian was born on 25 September 1764, at his family home of Moorland Close, Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth in Cumberland, England.
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