Master's mate of the Bounty and leader of the mutiny of 1789.

The Manx sources claim him as one of the Christians of Milntown. One account traces the descent through the eldest brother of Illiam Dhone, and notes that although the family had been settled in Cumberland for three generations, his father being a lawyer and coroner there, they kept strong Manx links. He was one of three men aboard the Bounty with Manx connections, the others being Bligh himself, who had married into a Manx customs family, and the midshipman Peter Heywood.

Bligh had taken to him. On an earlier voyage, during which Bligh learned of his appointment to the Bounty, he took Christian under his wing and gave him lessons in navigation.

The break came at the Friendly Islands. Bligh was a great martinet, there was much discontent in the crew, and the feeling culminated in open mutiny, which Christian headed. The mutineers put Bligh and nineteen men who stayed loyal to him into the ship's launch.