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Well, I managed to stagger through my first evening talk for about five years without collapsing or tripping over the projector lead although my ancient netbook froze for about 20 minutes between Bligh giving up his [cabbin] “at Nights for the Use of those poor fellows who had Wet [Births]” and Camperdown, and it was too dark to read my script, so had to ad-lib that bit.  They were kind enough not to charge me for attending my own talk (normally we pay £3 per monthly meeting), and they gave me a free raffle ticket, which I managed to pick when they asked me to do the draw.  I only got one question, so I must have been very thorough or sent most people to sleep. 

Only one person recognised Charles Laughton from the 1935 film.  Most remembered Trevor Howard and Antony Hopkins from the 1962 and 1984 films.

Turning to Bligh’s tomb, all had seen funerial urns emitting “the eternal flame” at some time or other, so no one argued we were looking at a pineapple or a breadfruit.  Only one person spotted the conundrum in the inscription.  That is; Dec1817-1754=63, not 64 as carved on the face of the tomb.  I’ve checked that there are no Julian/Gregorian connotations within this period, so did the family mean “In his 64^th year” or where his surviving family members or the stone mason not as good at maths as Bligh himself? 

Bligh’s Family Tomb in the grounds of St Mary at Lambeth is well worth a visit, especially close to lunchtime, because the church (///hopes.loses.frogs) is now a gardening museum and café.  Just up the road is Bligh’s London house No 100 Lambeth Road (///simply.letter.spine). DaveP

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