Bligh Water
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In 1789 the English Royal Navy Cutter the Bounty commanded by Lieutenant
William Bligh Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command; after being set adrift i ...
was overtaken by 18 crew led by Master's Mate Fletcher Christian in what has been named the "
Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set h ...
." The area known as the Bligh Water is the body of water (approximately 9500 km2 in extent) in the western
Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consis ...
islands through which Bligh sailed his 7 m (23 ft) launch during his 3,618 mile journey from
Tofua Tofua is a volcanic island in Tonga. Located in the Haʻapai island group, it is a steep-sided composite cone with a summit caldera. It is part of the highly active Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone and its associated volcanic arc, which extends ...
to the Dutch port of Timor. At the time some of the local Fijian tribes were considered hostile and many were
cannibalistic Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...
so Bligh did not wish to jeopardize his safety or the safety of his crew elected not stop his journey in the area.


SCUBA Diving the Bligh Water

Today many people refer to the area of the Vatu-I-Ra Passage, around the island of Vatu, as the "Bligh Water". While this is technically true, and the Vatu-I-Ra passage is located in the Bligh Water, the real Bligh Water is much larger. The Vatu-I-Ra Passage, now a marine protected area is famous for its abundance and diversity of marine life. One of the main attractions are the plentiful populations of beautiful hard and soft corals which thousands of SCUBA divers each year visit to enjoy and
photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...
.


External links


Geological study of the Bligh Water

Bligh Encyclopedia's Bligh Water entry
Bodies of water of Fiji {{Fiji-geo-stub