Mutiny on the Bounty wine bottle fetches £2,200 at auction

Lt Bligh and 18 loyalists, depicted here by artist Robert Dodd, were cast adrift in the South Pacific

A wine bottle which was believed to have been on a ship when it was famously commandeered by a rebel crew has sold at auction for £2,200.

The item was among a collection connected to Lt William Bligh, who captained HMS Bounty on its fateful mission to the South Pacific in 1789.

After the mutiny, Bligh navigated 4,000 miles (6,500 km) to safety with 18 men, all but one of whom survived.

The collection, sold online by Sworders of Stansted, Essex, went for £19,960.

The bottle had expected to achieve between £200 and £300, while a yew walking stick owned by his daughter, estimated at up to £600, fetched £1,625.

The bottle of wine sold for £2,200

A pocket watch owned by Lieutenant Bligh was withdrawn from sale by the collector's family, who wished to keep it

The items were amassed by Mutiny on the Bounty enthusiast John O'Conner, who died last year.

A Lt Bligh pocket watch that he had owned, which was expected to fetch £5,000, was withdrawn from sale by his family, who wished to keep it.

The HMS Bounty was on a mission to collect bread-fruit trees from Tahiti and take them to plantations in the West Indies when disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control.