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A curious book, Captain Bligh’s Portable Nightmare. Partly fiction,
partly fact, John Toohey uses the story of Bligh’s extraordinary feat of
navigating a rowing boat and succouring its crew for more than 4000 miles across
the Pacific after being cast adrift by the Bounty mutineers. Every now and then
the author suspends this to give us a short lecture on how to use a sextant, for
instance, or on vitamin-deficiency diseases. That said, the book’s didactic
diversions don’t hold up the tale of a remarkable man. Occasional anachronisms
to ignore. Published by Fourth Estate, £12, ISBN 1841150770.