Charles Churchill (1759–1790) was the master at arms on board HMAV Bounty during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti to transplant breadfruit to the British colonies in the West Indies.
[1] Churchill and his fellow deserters composed a letter hoping to appease Bligh on return to England and avoid possible fatal consequences on the result of a court martial.
We should think ourselves wholly inexcusable if we omitted taking this earliest opportunity of returning our thanks for your goodness in delivering us from a trial by court martial, the fatal consequences of which are obvious; and although we cannot possibly lay any claim to so great a favour, yet we humbly beg you will be pleased to remit any farther punishment; and we trust our future conduct will fully demonstrate our deep sense of your clemency, and our steadfast resolution to behave better hereafter.
Tattooed in several parts of the body.When Christian sailed the Bounty to Tahiti for the final time before heading to Pitcairn, Churchill along with 15 other crew members, voted to stay.
He had an ally, Vehiatua[3] who was a minor chief of Taiarapu, a part of south east Tahiti, brother in law of the Tahitian King Otoo.
Some attempted to build a schooner hoping to sail to the Dutch East Indies to surrender, others settled into Tahitian life and customs.
Churchill and fellow crony Matthew Thompson, on the other hand, chose to lead drunken and generally dissolute lives, which ended in the violent deaths of both.