The ’ Obscure historical events made famous by works of art’ thread jogged my memory of another historical myth: the story of the Bounty mutiny and the resulting reputation Captain Bligh got as an evil, cruel commander. Countless people over the years have said stuff like “my boss is a real Captain Bligh!”.
But the truth is, Captain Bligh was actually relatively progressive for a British ship’s captain of his day. His punishments were not particularly harsh or cruel; if anything they were less so than the typical punishments Royal Navy sailors would receive. It wasn’t his fault that Fletcher Christian and his cohorts got too soft on the easy living in Tahiti and refused to go back to a hard life on ship.
Not to mention, after Captain Bligh was relegated to a lifeboat with a few remaining loyal sailors, his ability to get them to a safe outpost thousands of miles away was an astounding feat of navigation. Captain Bligh got a historical raw deal!