Mr. Christian . . . What Is the Meaning of This Visit to L.A.? : Tourism: Capt. Bligh, Fletcher Christian and other actors in period costumes sail a replica of the HMS Bounty into San Pedro.

In 1789, Second Mate Fletcher Christian forced Capt. William Bligh and 18 crew members of the HMS Bounty to board a long boat, which he set adrift, in a mutiny depicted in an epic trilogy and several Hollywood movies.

Two hundred years later, Bligh apparently was willing to let bygones be bygones as he and Christian, played by actors, shook hands warmly on the 18th-Century British naval ship as it glided Wednesday into the Port of Los Angeles.

Though it looked like the HMS Bounty, the vessel was actually a 20th-Century replica that depended on two 220-horsepower engines to help it ease into Berth 84, where it will be open to the public for tours this weekend next to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro.

“We’re right on the water,” said Dr. Sheli Smith, museum curator. “So it’s a perfect spot forthe Bounty. It’s got all the makings.”

The modern day Bounty was built by MGM Studios for the 1962 movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” and is on the last stop of a 20-city tour of the West Coast. Constructed according to British Navy plans and descriptions from Bligh’s diary, the 169-foot ship carries cannons, period furniture and sailor’s belongings.

As they lead visitors around, actors dressed in period attire portray officers and seamen and play musical instruments such as flutes, banjos and concertinas, or sing, or tell seaman’s tales.

“I’ve memorized a second life,” said Robert Dawson, an actor and historian who has been portraying Capt. Bligh on the Bounty for three years. “I give an account of the mutiny, and my life, and the crew gives their account. You get a lot of different perspectives on the story, depending on who you talk to and what their background is.”

It is disputed what circumstances led Christian to force Bligh and the officers and crew loyal to him into a 23-foot longboat before setting them adrift in the South Pacific. Some historians say Bligh was a brilliant but caustic skipper, and he may have been abusive to his crew. But even after his sailors turned on him, he proved his piloting skills by guiding the small boatload of castaways to a safe port 3,600 miles away.

To escape British authority, Christian and 21 crewmen fled to Tahiti, and later to the uncharted island of Pitcairn, 300 miles west of Tahiti and now the smallest of the British island colonies.

With Tahitians they brought over, they settled the island.

Most of today’s 53 inhabitants of Pitcairn are descended from the fugitive crew, and the Bounty’s arrival in Los Angeles lured two of Christian’s descendants to Berth 84.

Tom Christian, the great-great-great-grandson of Fletcher Christian, took a motor boat out to the ship and was aboard as it docked. A Pitcairn resident, he has been touring the United States with a church group.

“To be here and look at the ship that portrays our early history is just fascinating,” he said.

As the radio officer on Pitcairn, Tom Christian also drew attention from the amateur radio operators who run a ham radio station at the museum.

“We’ve talked to him many times on Pitcairn,” said Steve Stambuk, a member of the radio club. “So to see him eyeball to eyeball is a great kick for us.”

The actor who plays Fletcher Christian, Calvin Fletcher Christian, is a sixth-generation descendant of the second mate and grew up in California.

The HMS Bounty set sail from the East Coast in May to serve as the flagship for the Goodwill Games in Seattle, said Kurt Neubert, ship purser. The Bounty, owned by Turner Broadcasting System, has visited ports along the coast, spending a few days in each one and raising more than $90,000 for various nonprofit groups.

This Bounty was used in a 1962 remake, starring Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando, of the original 1935 film, which had starred Charles Laughton and Clark Gable. It was also featured in 1983’s “Yellowbeard,” starring members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.

Among the 75 people at dockside who greeted the vessel was San Pedro resident Jo Porobic, 64. She remembered when another HMS Bounty, used in the 1935 film, moored off Cabrillo Beach when she was a teen-ager.

“We would row out there in a small rowboat and say hello to the crew,” she said. “They tried to seduce us, but we were a little smarter than they and never went aboard.”

Though she was nostalgic about seeing the ship, Porobic said she has no plans during the weekend to set foot on this Bounty, either.

The tours will be offered from Friday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors and $2 for children under 12. The tour is not wheelchair accessible.