Book excerpt: Men Against the Sea follows the events after the Mutiny on the Bounty, when Fletcher Christian and mutineers took control of the ship and set Lieutenant Bligh afloat in a small boat with members of the crew loyal to him. The story follows the journey of Lieutenant William Bligh and the eighteen men set adrift in an open boat by the mutineers of the Bounty. The story is told from the perspective of Thomas Ledward, the Bounty's acting surgeon, who went into the ship's launch with Bligh. Bligh exceeds with his inexhaustible determination and unfaltering leadership, saving the lives of his men and leading them through a horrific experience, to survive the South Pacific.