I would like to be able to say, "It's all here." But ebook limitations don't allow me to do that. I've had to omit some things, but nothing pertinent to the story. There are two columns, Knots and Fathoms, that contain only numbers, these are omitted. There are two columns, Courses and Winds, which contain only directions, N, WSW, East, these are omitted. There is a column, Observations, sometimes omitted from the log itself, that when included contains various celestial and navigational observations. This column has been omitted. There are generally five figures for the ship's position: for the latitude, Observed and Dead Reckoning, and for the longitude, Dead Reckoning, Time Keeper, and Lunar & Time Keeper. I have merged these into two figures for the ship's position, the decimal latitude and longitude.
Other than that, everything is here, every word. The Bounty logbook covers the Bounty's voyage up to the mutiny, and the voyage of Bligh and his men in the Bounty's launch from the mutiny to Timor. Plus, the logbook of the Resource, and Bligh's Vlydt Journal are also included. The Resource was the schooner Bligh purchased in Timor to carry his men to Java. The Vlydt was a Dutch ship which carried Bligh, his clerk, and his servant from Java to England. The Journal was kept in the form of a logbook.
The Bounty's logbook was transcribed from images of the official logbook of the Bounty held at the National Archives, Kew, England. The official logbook was a clean copy of the logbook made by Bligh's clerk and turned in to the Admiralty when he returned to England. The logbook that actually went on the voyage was Bligh's personal copy which is held by the State Library of New South Wales. The Resource and Vlydt logbooks were transcribed from images of the originals from the SLNSW.
In the ebook, all abbreviations have been expanded, but other than that, the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation of the original are retained. Many unfamiliar terms and references are explained. Every crewman's full name and station aboard ship are inserted wherever he is mentioned. The correct spelling of places is inserted where known.
This ebook contains every entry from Thursday, August 16, 1787, when "On the 16th August 1787 I had the Honor to receive my Appointment from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to Command His Majestys Vessel Bounty, forthwith to put her in Commission and to use the utmost dispatch to complete her for a Voyage to remote parts,"
to Saturday, March 13, 1790, when, "Sunday PM or Saturday Afternoon by Civil Account I got an Isle of White [Wight] Boat and left the Packet [Dutch ship Vlydt], at Midnight got to the [HMS] George in Portsmouth and on Sunday 10 O'Clock in the forenoon 14th March took post Chaise for Town where I arrived that Night."