HMS Pandora (1779)
Encyclopedia
HMS Pandora was a 24-gun Porcupine-class
sixth-rate
post ship
of the Royal Navy
launched in May 1779. She is best known as the ship sent in 1790 to search for the Bounty and the mutineers who had taken her. She was wrecked on the return voyage in 1791.
by the combined fleets of France and Spain. She was deployed in North American waters during the American Revolutionary War
and saw service as a convoy escort between England and Quebec. Later, as a lone cruiser off the North American coast, she captured several rebel privateer
s. She was put in ordinary
(mothballed) in 1783 at Chatham for 7 years
, the First Lord of the Admiralty, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham
, decided to despatch her to recover the Bounty, capture the mutineers, and return them to England for trial. She was refitted, and her 6-pounder guns were reduced to 20, though she gained four 18-pounder carronade
s.
Pandora sailed from Portsmouth
on 7 November 1790, commanded by Captain Edward Edwards and manned by a crew of 134 men.
Unbeknown to Edwards, 12 of the mutineers along with four sailors who had stayed loyal to Bligh had by then already elected to return to Tahiti
, after a failed attempt to establish a colony (Fort St George) under Fletcher Christian
's leadership on Tubuai
, one of the Austral Islands
. They were living in Tahiti as 'beachcombers
', many of them having fathered children with local women. Fletcher Christian's group of mutineers and their Polynesian followers had sailed off and eventually established their settlement on then uncharted Pitcairn Island
.
The Pandora reached Tahiti on 23 March 1791 via Cape Horn
. Five of the men from the Bounty came on board voluntarily within 24 hours of the frigate's arrival, and nine more were arrested by armed shore parties a few weeks later after fleeing to the mountains to avoid capture. These fourteen men were locked up in a makeshift prison cell on the Pandora's quarter-deck, which they called "Pandora's Box
". Edwards was told that two of them had already died before the Pandoras arrival.
On 8 May 1791 the Pandora left Tahiti and subsequently spent three months visiting islands in the South-West Pacific in search of the Bounty and the remaining mutineers, without finding any traces of the pirated vessel. During this part of the voyage 14 crew went missing in two of the ship's boats. In the meantime the Pandora visited Tokelau
, Samoa
, Tonga
and Rotumah. They also passed Vanikoro
Island, which Edwards named Pitt's Island; but they did not stop to explore the island and investigate obvious signs of habitation. If they had done so, they would very probably have discovered early evidence of the fate of the French Pacific explorer La Perouse's expedition which had disappeared in 1788. From later accounts about their fate it is evident that a substantial number of crew survived the cyclone that wrecked their ships L'Astrolabe and La Boussole on Vanikoro
's fringing reef.
, the frigate ran aground on 29 August 1791 on the outer Great Barrier Reef
. She sank the next morning claiming the lives of 31 of her crew and four of the prisoners. The remainder of the ship's company (89 men) and ten prisoners - seven of them released from their cell as the ship was actually sinking - assembled on a small sand cay and after two nights on the island they sailed for Timor
in four open boats; arriving in Kupang
on 16 September 1791 after an arduous voyage across the Arafura Sea
. Sixteen more died after surviving the wreck, many having fallen ill during their sojourn in Batavia (Jakarta). Eventually only 78 of the 134 men who had been on board upon departure returned home.
Captain Edwards and his officers were exonerated for the loss of the Pandora after a court martial. No attempt was made by the colonial authorities in New South Wales
to salvage material from the wreck. The ten surviving prisoners were also tried; the various courts martial held found four of them innocent of mutiny and, although the other six were found guilty, only three (Millward, Burkitt and Ellison) were executed. Peter Heywood
and James Morrison
received a Royal pardon, while William Muspratt
was acquitted on a legal technicality
.
Descendants of the nine mutineers not discovered by Pandora still live on Pitcairn Island, the refuge Fletcher Christian
founded in January 1790 and where they burnt and scuttled the Bounty a few weeks after arrival. Their hiding place was not discovered until 1808 when the New England sealer Topaz (Captain Mayhew Folger
) happened on the tiny uncharted island. By then all of the mutineers - except John Adams
(aka Alexander Smith) - were dead, most having died under violent circumstances.
. On that day under the radio guidance of Ben Cropp, searchers on the ground were initially unsuccessful in pinpointing the wreck at an expected location. Also on that day a second documentary filmmaker team, led by Steve Domm, joined the search. After the wreck site was located on the following day, it was immediately declared a protected site under the Australian Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
, Messrs.Cropp and Domm sharing the maximum reward payable under that legislation. It is located approximately 5 km north-west of Moulter Cay 11°23′S 143°59′E on the outer Great Barrier Reef, approximately 140 km east of Cape York
, on the edge of the Coral Sea
.
The Queensland Museum
has been excavating the wreck according to a research design. Archaeologists and historians at the Museum of Tropical Queensland
are still gradually fitting together pieces of the Pandora story puzzle, using the archaeological evidence as well as the extant historical evidence. A large collection of artifacts is on display at the museum.
In the course of nine seasons of excavation during the 1980s and 1990s, the museum's marine archaeological teams established that approximately 30% of the hull is preserved as a more or less intact structure. The vessel came to rest at a depth of between 30 to 33m on a gently sloping sandy bottom, slightly inclined to starboard; consequently more of the starboard side has been preserved than the port side of the hull. Approximately one third of the overburden in which the wreck is buried has been excavated by the Queensland Museum to date; it is estimated that the remainder to be excavated amounts to approximately 350 m3. This would probably require at least another ten full-blown seasons of excavation - assuming a similar methodology and level of technology is used as on previous museum expeditions. If an expedition were to be mounted from the 2008/09 summer - and subsequently at a rate of one excavation per summer (until 2017/18)- it is estimated that at least A$9.5 million would be required to complete 10 seasons of fieldwork. Additional funds (approx between $450k -$550k p/a) would also be required to provide for salaries of at least four additional full-time, 'back-of-house' professional contract positions at the museum, until at least 2020.
For strategic and financial reasons there are no plans to continue excavation in the foreseeable future. However, if the Queensland Museum were to continue excavation, priority would be given to the area under the stern and to the bow section of the wreck; especially to the various petty officers' storerooms that were erected in the bow at platform deck level in vessels of the Pandoras design. In addition to exposing professional and personal items belonging to the ordinary sailors and to such crew members as the carpenter and the bosun, the forward storerooms are expected to contain a range of extra spare stores and fittings which the Pandora was carrying in anticipation of the need to refit the Bounty after her recapture.
Porcupine class post ship
The Porcupine-class sailing sixth rates were a series of ten post ships built to a 1776 design by John Williams, which served in the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War, some surviving to see more service in the Napoleonic Wars. The 24-gun design was a development of his 1773 design...
sixth-rate
Sixth-rate
Sixth rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for small warships mounting between 20 and 24 nine-pounder guns on a single deck, sometimes with guns on the upper works and sometimes without.-Rating:...
post ship
Post ship
Post ship was a designation used in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail to describe a ship of the sixth-rate that was smaller than a frigate , but by virtue of being a rated ship , had to have as its captain a post captain rather than a lieutenant or commander...
of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
launched in May 1779. She is best known as the ship sent in 1790 to search for the Bounty and the mutineers who had taken her. She was wrecked on the return voyage in 1791.
Early service
Her first service was in the Channel during the 1779 threatened invasionArmada of 1779
The Armada of 1779 was an exceptionally large joint French and Spanish fleet intended, with the aid of a feint by the American Continental Navy, to facilitate an invasion of Britain, as part of the wider American War of Independence, and in application of the Franco-American alliance...
by the combined fleets of France and Spain. She was deployed in North American waters during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
and saw service as a convoy escort between England and Quebec. Later, as a lone cruiser off the North American coast, she captured several rebel privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
s. She was put in ordinary
Reserve fleet
A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....
(mothballed) in 1783 at Chatham for 7 years
Voyage in search of the Bounty
Pandora was finally ordered to be brought back into service on 30 June 1790 when war between England and Spain seemed likely due to the Nootka Controversy. However, in early August 1790, 5 months after learning of the mutiny on HMS BountyMutiny on the Bounty
The mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789, and has been commemorated by several books, films, and popular songs, many of which take considerable liberties with the facts. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the...
, the First Lord of the Admiralty, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham
John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham
General John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, KG, PC was a British peer and soldier.-Career:He was the eldest son of William Pitt the Elder and an elder brother of William Pitt the Younger...
, decided to despatch her to recover the Bounty, capture the mutineers, and return them to England for trial. She was refitted, and her 6-pounder guns were reduced to 20, though she gained four 18-pounder carronade
Carronade
The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...
s.
Pandora sailed from Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
on 7 November 1790, commanded by Captain Edward Edwards and manned by a crew of 134 men.
Unbeknown to Edwards, 12 of the mutineers along with four sailors who had stayed loyal to Bligh had by then already elected to return to Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, after a failed attempt to establish a colony (Fort St George) under Fletcher Christian
Fletcher Christian
Fletcher Christian was a master's mate on board the Bounty during William Bligh's fateful voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants...
's leadership on Tubuai
Tubuai (Austral Islands)
Tubuai is the name of a group of islands and also the name of its main island, being part of the Austral Islands, French Polynesia, in the Pacific Ocean. Tubuai, the main island of the Tubuai Island group, is located at . It is south of Tahiti...
, one of the Austral Islands
Austral Islands
The Austral Islands are the southernmost group of islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the South Pacific. Geographically, they consist of two separate archipelagos, namely in the northwest the Tubuai Islands consisting of the Îles Maria, Rimatara, Rurutu, Tubuai...
. They were living in Tahiti as 'beachcombers
Beachcombing
Beachcombing and beachcomber are words with multiple, but related, meanings that have evolved over time.A beachcomber is someone who "combs" the beach, and the intertidal zone in general, looking for things of value, interest or utility....
', many of them having fathered children with local women. Fletcher Christian's group of mutineers and their Polynesian followers had sailed off and eventually established their settlement on then uncharted Pitcairn Island
Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands , officially named the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, form a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the Pacific...
.
The Pandora reached Tahiti on 23 March 1791 via Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
. Five of the men from the Bounty came on board voluntarily within 24 hours of the frigate's arrival, and nine more were arrested by armed shore parties a few weeks later after fleeing to the mountains to avoid capture. These fourteen men were locked up in a makeshift prison cell on the Pandora's quarter-deck, which they called "Pandora's Box
Pandora's box
Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora's creation around line 60 of Hesiod's Works and Days. The "box" was actually a large jar given to Pandora , which contained all the evils of the world. When Pandora opened the jar, all its contents except for one item...
". Edwards was told that two of them had already died before the Pandoras arrival.
On 8 May 1791 the Pandora left Tahiti and subsequently spent three months visiting islands in the South-West Pacific in search of the Bounty and the remaining mutineers, without finding any traces of the pirated vessel. During this part of the voyage 14 crew went missing in two of the ship's boats. In the meantime the Pandora visited Tokelau
Tokelau
Tokelau is a territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean that consists of three tropical coral atolls with a combined land area of 10 km2 and a population of approximately 1,400...
, Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
, Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
and Rotumah. They also passed Vanikoro
Vanikoro
Vanikoro is an island from the Santa Cruz group, located 118 km to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It belongs administratively to the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands....
Island, which Edwards named Pitt's Island; but they did not stop to explore the island and investigate obvious signs of habitation. If they had done so, they would very probably have discovered early evidence of the fate of the French Pacific explorer La Perouse's expedition which had disappeared in 1788. From later accounts about their fate it is evident that a substantial number of crew survived the cyclone that wrecked their ships L'Astrolabe and La Boussole on Vanikoro
Vanikoro
Vanikoro is an island from the Santa Cruz group, located 118 km to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It belongs administratively to the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands....
's fringing reef.
Wrecked
Heading west, making for the Torres StraitTorres Strait
The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...
, the frigate ran aground on 29 August 1791 on the outer Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
. She sank the next morning claiming the lives of 31 of her crew and four of the prisoners. The remainder of the ship's company (89 men) and ten prisoners - seven of them released from their cell as the ship was actually sinking - assembled on a small sand cay and after two nights on the island they sailed for Timor
Timor
Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The island's surface is 30,777 square kilometres...
in four open boats; arriving in Kupang
Kupang
Not to be confused with Tanjung Kupang in JohoreKupang is the provincial capital of East Nusa Tenggara province in southeast Indonesia....
on 16 September 1791 after an arduous voyage across the Arafura Sea
Arafura Sea
The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea.-Geography:The Arafura Sea is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda and Ceram...
. Sixteen more died after surviving the wreck, many having fallen ill during their sojourn in Batavia (Jakarta). Eventually only 78 of the 134 men who had been on board upon departure returned home.
Captain Edwards and his officers were exonerated for the loss of the Pandora after a court martial. No attempt was made by the colonial authorities in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
to salvage material from the wreck. The ten surviving prisoners were also tried; the various courts martial held found four of them innocent of mutiny and, although the other six were found guilty, only three (Millward, Burkitt and Ellison) were executed. Peter Heywood
Peter Heywood
Captain Peter Heywood was a British naval officer who was aboard HMS Bounty during the mutiny of 28 April 1789. He was later captured, tried and condemned to death as a mutineer, but subsequently pardoned...
and James Morrison
James Morrison (mutineer)
James Morrison was a British seaman and mutineer who took part in the Mutiny on the Bounty.-Early career:James Morrison was a native of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland where his father was a merchant and land entrepreneur. He joined the navy at 18, serving as Clerk on the Suffolk,...
received a Royal pardon, while William Muspratt
William Muspratt
William Muspratt was an able seaman on His Majesty's Armed Ship Bounty. After participating in the Mutiny on the Bounty on 28 April 1789, he was court-martialed at Spithead in September 1792, sentenced to death, but escaped the hangman's noose after his conviction was overturned on appeal...
was acquitted on a legal technicality
Legal technicality
The term legal technicality is a casual or colloquial phrase referring to a technical aspect of law. The phrase is not a term of art in the law; it has no exact meaning, nor does it have a legal definition. It implies that that strict adherence to the letter of the law has prevented the spirit of...
.
Descendants of the nine mutineers not discovered by Pandora still live on Pitcairn Island, the refuge Fletcher Christian
Fletcher Christian
Fletcher Christian was a master's mate on board the Bounty during William Bligh's fateful voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants...
founded in January 1790 and where they burnt and scuttled the Bounty a few weeks after arrival. Their hiding place was not discovered until 1808 when the New England sealer Topaz (Captain Mayhew Folger
Mayhew Folger
Mayhew Folger was an American whaler who captained the sealing ship Topaz that rediscovered the Pitcairn Islands in 1808. Only one of 's mutineers was still alive: Alexander Smith, whose alias was John Adams....
) happened on the tiny uncharted island. By then all of the mutineers - except John Adams
John Adams (mutineer)
John Adams was the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island in January 1790, the year after the mutiny. His real name was John Adams; He used the name Alexander Smith until he was discovered in 1808 by Captain Mayhew Folger of the ship Topaz...
(aka Alexander Smith) - were dead, most having died under violent circumstances.
Wreck site: Discovery and archaeology
The location of the wreck of the Pandora was first pin-pointed in November 1977 by a RAAF P-2V Neptune which dropped a flare where it had detected the magnetic anomaly caused by the wreck; the wreck was subsequently sighted by a diver called Ron Bell, working with documentary filmmaker Ben CroppBen Cropp
Ben Cropp is an Australian former shark hunter and six-time Australian spearfishing champion, having retired from that trade in 1962 to pursue oceanic documentary filmmaking and conservation efforts...
. On that day under the radio guidance of Ben Cropp, searchers on the ground were initially unsuccessful in pinpointing the wreck at an expected location. Also on that day a second documentary filmmaker team, led by Steve Domm, joined the search. After the wreck site was located on the following day, it was immediately declared a protected site under the Australian Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
The Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 is an Australian Act of Parliament designed to legally protect historic shipwrecks and any relics or artifacts from those wrecks...
, Messrs.Cropp and Domm sharing the maximum reward payable under that legislation. It is located approximately 5 km north-west of Moulter Cay 11°23′S 143°59′E on the outer Great Barrier Reef, approximately 140 km east of Cape York
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
, on the edge of the Coral Sea
Coral Sea
The Coral Sea is a marginal sea off the northeast coast of Australia. It is bounded in the west by the east coast of Queensland, thereby including the Great Barrier Reef, in the east by Vanuatu and by New Caledonia, and in the north approximately by the southern extremity of the Solomon Islands...
.
The Queensland Museum
Queensland Museum
The Queensland Museum is the state museum of Queensland. The museum currently operates four separate campuses; at South Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba and Townsville.The museum is funded by the State Government of Queensland.-History:...
has been excavating the wreck according to a research design. Archaeologists and historians at the Museum of Tropical Queensland
Museum of Tropical Queensland
The Museum of Tropical Queensland is a museum of natural history, archaeology and history located in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It is located in the same complex as the Reef HQ Aquarium...
are still gradually fitting together pieces of the Pandora story puzzle, using the archaeological evidence as well as the extant historical evidence. A large collection of artifacts is on display at the museum.
In the course of nine seasons of excavation during the 1980s and 1990s, the museum's marine archaeological teams established that approximately 30% of the hull is preserved as a more or less intact structure. The vessel came to rest at a depth of between 30 to 33m on a gently sloping sandy bottom, slightly inclined to starboard; consequently more of the starboard side has been preserved than the port side of the hull. Approximately one third of the overburden in which the wreck is buried has been excavated by the Queensland Museum to date; it is estimated that the remainder to be excavated amounts to approximately 350 m3. This would probably require at least another ten full-blown seasons of excavation - assuming a similar methodology and level of technology is used as on previous museum expeditions. If an expedition were to be mounted from the 2008/09 summer - and subsequently at a rate of one excavation per summer (until 2017/18)- it is estimated that at least A$9.5 million would be required to complete 10 seasons of fieldwork. Additional funds (approx between $450k -$550k p/a) would also be required to provide for salaries of at least four additional full-time, 'back-of-house' professional contract positions at the museum, until at least 2020.
For strategic and financial reasons there are no plans to continue excavation in the foreseeable future. However, if the Queensland Museum were to continue excavation, priority would be given to the area under the stern and to the bow section of the wreck; especially to the various petty officers' storerooms that were erected in the bow at platform deck level in vessels of the Pandoras design. In addition to exposing professional and personal items belonging to the ordinary sailors and to such crew members as the carpenter and the bosun, the forward storerooms are expected to contain a range of extra spare stores and fittings which the Pandora was carrying in anticipation of the need to refit the Bounty after her recapture.
Further reading
- Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
External links
- Maritime Archaeology - HMS Pandora
- Reports of Captain Edwards from the Pandora and Batavia, Captain Edwards's instructions, Surgeon Hamilton's Narrative, Midshipman Renouard's narrative of the Voyage of the Matavy Tender.
- Track of the Pandora from England to wreck.
- http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Histories+of+Queensland/Transport+Maritime+History/HMS+Pandora Queensland Museum Pandora pages
- Audio recording of ship surgeon George Hamilton's eyewitness account Voyage Round the World in His Majesty’s Frigate Pandora at librivox