John Fryer (Naval Officer)

John Fryer (1753-1817)

John Fryer (born August 15, 1753 in Wells-next-the-Sea , England , † May 26, 1817 ibid) was a British naval officer . Fryer was from 1787 to 1789 Sailing Master ( navigation officer ) of the sailing ship Bounty, made famous by the mutiny .

Life

Fryer was named Sailing Master of the Bounty in 1787. The ship's captain was William Bligh , Masters Mate (translatable, for example, with a captain or alternate 2nd officer) was Fletcher Christian .

Bligh and Fryer repeatedly argued during the drive. Even so, Fryer remained loyal to Captain Bligh during the mutiny. Together with Bligh and seventeen other sailors, Fryer was abandoned by the mutineers in a small dinghy. Equipped only with a compass, log, an octant and his pocket watch, Bligh navigated the dinghy in 41 days of sailing over 5,800 kilometers to the Dutch trading post in Kupang on Timor . From there Fryer traveled back to England.

He testified on the mutiny in the court martial. He later assisted Fletcher Christian's brother Edward Christian in publishing a pamphlet in which William Bligh's version of the mutiny was denied.

Fryer remained in the fleet service, although he never became a captain, but later he became a sailing master on a liner . John Fryer was discharged from the military in 1812 and died in his birthplace Wells-next-the-Sea in 1817.

In popular culture

DeWitt Jennings played John Fryer in the 1935 film Mutiny on the Bounty . In the 1962 film of the same name, Mutiny on the Bounty , the Irish Eddie Byrne played the role of Fryer. In the 1984 film adaptation of the story called The Bounty , Fryer was played by Daniel Day-Lewis .

literature

• Mary Ann Fryer Gamble, Owen Rutter (Eds.): John Fryer of the Bounty: Notes on his Career. Golden Cockerel Press, 1939

Web links

• John Fryer in the database of Find a Grave (English)