’The carpenter (Purcell) began to be insolent to a high degree, and at last told me, with a mutinous aspect, he was as good a man as I was.  I did not just now see where this was to end; I therefore determined to strike a final blow at it, and either to preserve my command or die in the attempt; and taking hold of a cutlass, I ordered the rascal to take hold of another and defend himself, when he called out that I was going to kill him, and began to make concessions.  I was now only assisted by Mr. Nelson; and the master (Fryer) very deliberately called out to the boatswain, to put me under an arrest, and was stirring up a greater disturbance, when I declared, if he interfered, when I was in the execution of my duty to preserve order and regularity, and that in consequence any tumult arose, I would certainly put him to death the first person.  This had a proper effect on this man, and he now assured me that, on the contrary, I might rely on him to support my orders and directions for the future.  This is the outline of a tumult that lasted about a quarter of hour’; and he adds, ’I was told that the master and carpenter, at the last place, were endeavouring to produce altercations, and were the principal cause of their murmuring there.’  This carpenter he brought to a court-martial on their arrival in England, on various charges, of which he was found guilty in part, and reprimanded.  Purcell is said to be at this time in a mad-house.

On another occasion, when a stew of oysters was distributed among the people, Lieutenant Bligh observes (in the MS. Journal), ’In the distribution of it, the voraciousness of some and the moderation of others were very discernible.  The master began to be dissatisfied the first, because it was not made into a larger quantity by the addition of water, and showed a turbulent disposition, until I laid my commands on him to be silent.’  Again, on his refusing bread to the men, because they were collecting oysters, he says, ’this occasioned some murmuring with the master and carpenter, the former of whom endeavoured to prove the propriety of such an expenditure, and was troublesomely ignorant, tending to create disorder among those, if any were weak enough to listen to him.’

If what Bligh states with regard to the conduct of the master and the carpenter be true, it was such, on several occasions, as to provoke a man much less irritable than himself.  He thus speaks of the latter, when in the ship and in the midst of the mutiny.  ’The boatswain and carpenter were fully at liberty; the former was employed, on pain of death, to hoist the boats out, but the latter I saw acting the part of an idler, with an impudent and ill-looking countenance, which led me to believe he was one of the mutineers, until he was among the rest ordered to leave the ship, for it appeared to me to be a doubt with Christian, at first, whether he should keep the carpenter or his mate (Norman), but knowing the former to be a troublesome fellow, he determined on the latter.’