Matthew Thompson

Matthew Thompson (1750-April 1790) was One of the Mutineers in the Mutiny on the Bounty, a ferocious, anti-social bully, he was hated and feared by most everyone on the ship. During the Bounty's five-month stay in Tahiti (1788-89), Commander William Bligh had him flogged (a dozen lashes) for "insolence and disobedience of orders". Thompson was among the first to join Fletcher Christian in the mutiny on April 28, 1789, and was most effective in guarding the Bounty's arms chest from the loyalists. Back on Tahiti he was a one-man terror, randomly raping and killing the natives. In April 1790, mutineer Charles Churchill, who had been made a Tribal Chief, tried to quell Thompson's crime spree by arranging to have his weapons stolen. Thompson confronted Churchill about this and shot him to death. The killing of a Chief had to be avenged, so Churchill's tribe pretended to hail Thompson as their new leader and invited him to a feast to celebrate. After getting him good and drunk, the natives overpowered Thompson and beat him to death with rocks.