VIDEO: Mutiny! Channel 4 recreates legendary small boat journey

Episode 1: 9pm, Monday 6 March, Channel 4

In 1787 the mutinous crew of the Bounty set adrift their Captain. Though left for dead, Bligh and a few loyal hands sailed a small open boat 4,000 miles, past murderous reefs, through shark-infested waters and overwhelming storms, to safety. In terms of desperate voyages in unsuitable boats, their achievement is bettered only perhaps by Shackleton’s endeavours in the Sir James Caird.

Starting on Monday 6 March at 9pm on Channel 4, the TV documentary Mutiny will, over five 60-minute episodes, relive firsthand the ordeal those men faced, using the same traditional navigational instruments and moribund rations. SAS: Who Dares Wins’ Anthony Middleton leads a crew that includes, as Bligh’s did, a carpenter, a doctor and sailors, including Humphreys. To begin with, their survival is guided by Bligh’s diary of the passage, but ultimately it comes down to instinct and teamwork.

Their voyage begins, as Capt Bligh’s did, in a 23ft open boat 35 miles south of Tofua, near Tonga, and endures 4,000 miles of hunger, fatigue, illness, conflict and storms, scavenging for food on islands en route, before finally reaching safety in Kupang, Timor. It is a vividly-told tale of hardship afloat that will reset your idea of what constitutes a bad day on the water.