All three related books are contained in this volume. First, the longest installment, is "The Mutiny on the Bounty" which covers the two years of the Bounty's journey from England to Tahiti and then the mutiny on board. Told from the perspective of one of the midshipmen, Roger Byam, who did not take part in the mutiny but was left on board when Captain Bligh and others were cast adrift in a small boat. This story also follows Byam's eventual journey back to England after three years of life with the natives of Tahiti and his court martial and subsequent life.

In the second book, "Men Against the Sea," the reader is treated to the tale of how Captain Bligh and seventeen other men survived being left in the open ocean in a small boat with scanty provisions. This book is told through Thomas Ledward, the ship's surgeon. Whereas in "Mutiny," the Captain is portrayed as a terrible tyrant and unjust leader, in "Men" he is a more sympathetic character, sacrificing himself to carry the others to safety and vowing to hunt down the mutineers himself.

Finally, in "Pitcairn's Island" the reader finds the story of the nine mutineers, after leaving on Tahiti some of the Bounty's crew who were either not involved in the mutiny or chose to stay there. Led by Fletcher Christian, the Bounty searches the Pacific for an uninhabited island where they and their Tahitian women can live in peace and obscurity. The book tells the history of the little settlement on Pitcairn's Island, and how when the next ship landed there twenty years later there was only one adult male left alive, surrounded by Tahitian women and their children.

All three books are fantastic tales full of adventure and calamity. ( )

It has been some time since I've read this, so this is not a comprehensive review, but simply the impression that has stuck with me. I remember a bit of slogging, and the fact that although I was glad to have read it, I really have no interest in ever reading it again. ( )