HMS Bounty collection to highlight sale at Bonhams

A collection of items from the HMS Bounty is to sell at Bonhams' Travel and Exploration sale in New York on September 20.

The ship was sent to the Pacific in 1789 under the command of William Bligh. Its mission was to transport breadfruit from the island of Tahiti to the Caribbean.

HMS Bounty wood
The wood was recovered from the wreck of the Bounty

Bligh was a harsh taskmaster and morale began to deteriorate soon after the ship arrived in the Pacific.

The ship's first mate, Fletcher Christian, took control and forced Bligh onto a lifeboat.

The Bounty was then sailed to Pitcairn Island, stripped of useful parts, and sunk.

The pieces offered in the sale, which include a fragment of wood, four metal objects and a silver Spanish coin, will be sold as separate lots.

All were brought up from the seabed off the coast of Pitcairn Island by Luis Marden, the explorer and diver who found the wreck in 1957.

The wood fragment, valued at $4,000-6,000, is of particular interest.

It was presented by the National Geographic Society to the American explorer Admiral Richard Byrd in March 1957 and is believed to be from the hull of the vessel.

The collection of metal objects consist of two nails, a brass rod and a musket ball and is valued at $3,000-5,000.

The coin is expected to make $2,500-3,500.

We are selling this remarkable set of items from the HMS Victory.

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