Peter Heywood

The captain Peter Heywood (1772 - 1831) is a British naval officer originating in the island of Man, known to have taken part in the mutiny of the Bounty.

Heywood and the mutiny of Bounty

The voyage on Bounty in 1787 was the first of Heywood, any young person midship. It was friendly of Fletcher Christian, which then would agree to lead the mutineers. Heywood as for him was not regarded as one of the leaders of the mutiny, which was worth a certain indulgence to him during the lawsuit.

After the mutiny, an attempt to colonize Tubuai - one of the Southern Islands - having failed, Heywood turns over to Tahiti with 15 other sailors, after a division between the mutineers. On a side Christian and some sailors, with of Tahitiens of the two sexes, went with Bounty to the islands Pitcairn, where they burned the boat. Other the group of 16 is reduced rather quickly to 14 following a settling of score which turned very badly between two men. Heywood and the 13 others were then captured by the captain Edward Edwards come to Tahiti on HMS Pandora to seek them.

" mutins" left in Tahiti were, in the crew of the Bounty , those which had not been able to leave with Bligh on its launch, but which did not intend to remain in the Pacific with truths mutineers. They had started besides to build a boat of fortune to try to gain the Indies and to find a means there of joining England. But the Pandora arrived before they manage to carry out their project.

Heywood, James Morrison and five others oneself-saying " mutins" themselves were presented to the Pandora , believing rather naively that this ship was there to save them. They in fact were stopped, accused of piracy and were locked up in a wood prison on the ship, which was called " Pandora' S Box" (Pandora's box). Heywood and its companions (14 on the whole) there spent 4 months, connected, with irons. On board the Pandora a sailor of Bounty was, Thomas Hayward, which had followed Bligh. Heywood sought to contact it, but this one did not agree to it.

When the Pandora ran with the accesses of the strait of Torres, Heywood was of the ten prisoners who survived and made a success of the voyage 15 days until Timor (with 98 men) out of 4 boats. After which they arrived to England in 1792. There, Heywood passed in martial Cour, and was condemned to death. It was however pardoned and on the recommendation of Lord Hood could reinstate the rows of the Royal Navy.

Continuation of its career

It was useful under the orders of his uncle Sir Thomas Pasley on board HMS Bellerophon and arrived at the level of post-captain . He refused the row of commodore on the Big lakes of the Canada in 1818 for health reasons. It would have arrived at the row of admiral but died front, at 58 years.

Anecdotes

His/her daughter-in-law, Diana Jolliffe, will marry the admiral Edward Belcher.

Heywood is undoubtedly known especially to have been at the origin of the character of Roger Byam, principal character and narrator of the novel The Mutiny One The Bounty of Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (1932). Byam is also quoted in some of films based on this novel:

In the wake off the Bounty , of Charles Chauvel in 1933, with Arthur Greenaway as narrator,
Revolted of Bounty of Frank Lord in 1935, with Franchot Thunders in the role of Byam.

On the other hand, Lewis Milestone, in Revolted of Bounty which takes as a starting point the same book, does not mention Byam. As for Roger Donaldson, his Bounty takes as a starting point another book, of Richard Hough, and the role of Thomas Heywood is inteprété by Simon Adams.

References

Christiane Conway, Letters from the Isle off Man - The Bounty-Correspondence off Nessy and Peter Heywood , (editor: The Manx Experiment, 2005) ISBN 1-873120-77-X.

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