Chapter In The Bounty Story

Oid Wreck Could Be Another Chapter In The Bounty Story

By Robert Langdon.

An old wreck, found recently off the coast of Queensland, 30 miles north of Cairns, might be that of HMS Pandora, le 24-gun frigate that was sent out from England in 1790 to id and arrest the mutineers of HMS Bounty.

E discovery was made by Mr. \llan Darcy and three other nen while heading for Darwin he racing yacht Alvis in De >er. They had anchored five 5 off the Queensland coast, in fathoms of water—and right the old wreck. le member of the crew dis red her when he went over the of Alvis.

L e old ship had a hull of English 100 ft long, and two masts, and as snagged on a small un tered reef inside a bigger ted reef. diving, the men brought to surface a ship’s bell weighing , and cleaning revealed the in tion: “The gift of Lady Herbert, hter of Sir John Knatchbull, iearchim, Hatchin, Kent, in the dom of England, November 30, ter the Alvis broke down, so Darcy left men guarding his and the bell on Thursday d.

Dm Thursday Island, he some got to Darwin, where he said oped to organise an expedition Ivage the wreck, here might be old books or rs still readable on board,” he “There might even be sunken ure.” len the discovery of the wreck reported in Australian news rs just after Christmas, it was jsted that the wreck was that a English ship that had been le Australian coast many years e Captain Cook landed at ay Bay in 1770. is suggestion was based on the that the date on the bell pre l Cook’s visit by 59 years, wever, there are no good ns for supposing that the ship >re-date Cook. e date on the bell, for example, obably far from clear as the ionary of National Biography” ,1s that the Knatchbull family at Mearsham Hatch, in Kent Mearchin, Hatchin, Kent). the date on the bell could be rather than 1711. the other hand, there is every n to suppose that the wreck it of the Pandora as the wreck found in the very waters where *andora is known to have sunk; no other English ship, likely to had a 100-ft hull and a bell

bearing an 18th century inscription; is known to have been wrecked thereabouts.

Grim Story

The sinking of the Pandora is one of the grimmest episodes in the annals of the Pacific, and one of the numerous chapters in the story of the mutiny on the Bounty.

Thirty-five lives were lost when the ship went down, including those of four members of the Bounty’s crew; and the commander of the Pandora, Captain Edward Edwards, displayed a callousness on that occasion that has been described as “inhuman”, “barbaric” and “dis graceful”.

The wreck occurred while the Pandora was on her way from Tahiti to Timor. She had left Tahiti on May 19, after arresting 14 members of the Bounty’s crew.

These men —not all mutineers — had remained in the Bounty after Fletcher Christian and his followers had mutinied against Captain Bligh off Tofua in the Tonga group on April 28, 1789, and had set Bligh and 17 others adrift in an open boat.

After the mutiny, these 14 men had returned to Tahiti in the Bounty with Christian and eight others, but had remained there after Christian and the other eight sailed

off to Pitcairn Island.

When Captain Edwards arrived in Tahiti on March 23, 1791, four of these men—who were not mutineers —immediately went aboard the Pandora in the hope of getting passages to England.

Edwards, however, promptly

A reproduction of an old painting by Robert Dodds, of Bligh, and his party being cast adrift from the "Bounty" by the mutineers.

ted them and clapped them in —as he did the 10 others when len caught them 16 days later, vards looked on the 14 men as tical villains”, and after a few he had them locked in a round ‘ which was erected on the er-deck for their reception, is round house, which was ptly nicknamed “Pandora’s was only 18 ft wide at the iead and 11 ft long at the deck, mtrance to it was by a scuttle e top, about 20 in. square, vas bad enough that “Pandora’s was so cramped. But condi were made worse by the fact the hammocks issued to the lers were full of vermin; there “two necessary tubs” which constantly in the place; the i was almost unbearably hot; the prisoners’ arms and legs shackled so tightly that their became swollen.

Searched for Christian

s was the prisoners’ situation the Pandora left Tahiti and nained so until the ship was ;ed months later, er leaving Tahiti, Captain rds searched for Christian and ther mutineers in some of the ;y and Cook Islands, Samoa, i, Rotuma, the Santa Cruz , and the Louisiade Archi d of Papua, finding them, he decided to for Timor and home, yever, at 7.30 p.m. on August 91, while Edwards was trying d a passage through the Great 3r Reef well south of Cape the Pandora struck a sub id reef and was badly holed, h the ship in danger of being ■ed to pieces, Edwards ordered ms on one side to be thrown Dard in an effort to lighten en this was done, the Pandora Iriven over the reef and began tie in 15 fathoms of water, hands were then called to the pumps, and three of the iers were released from irons Ip. others, imagining that the was about to sink, wrenched elves out of their shackles leaded with the captain to be a chance to save their lives.

Edwards was mericiless. He >d their irons to be replaced, osted two extra sentinels over with orders to shoot if they to unfetter themselves again.

Left in Pandora's Box

daylight, when it was evident the Pandora would soon sink, :ds gave the order to abandon The four boats were hoisted md a small quantity of pro s was hastily thrown into 6.30 a.m., the hold was full ter and the deck was awash, as the ship slipped further

under the water, many of the sea men jumped overboard. But nobody paid the slightest heed to the fet tered occupants of “Pandora’s Box”.

Even when one of them entreated Captain Edwards to have mercy on them as he passed over their prison to make his own escape, their plight was ignored.

By this time, the ship was lying on her broadside with the port bow completely under water. The prisoners had almost resigned them selves to death when the master-at arms, either by accident or design, let the keys to their fetters slip through the scuttle.

The prisoners were thus able to begin freeing themselves, and all but four of them had been un fettered and had jumped overboard when the ship went down.

The 10 who had escaped supported themselves on planks and other debris until they were picked up by the Pandora’s boats and taken to a sandy island about three miles away.

A muster of survivors showed that 31 of the Pandora’ s crew had been drowned besides the four Bounty prisoners.

A survey of the provisions showed that there was only enough for a daily ration per man of two small glasses of water and one of wine, and two to three ounces of bread.

To Timor During the next three days, Cap tain Edwards had the Pandora’s boats prepared for a voyage to Timor. This was a nightmare of scarcely bearable hunger, sunburn and thirst, and also included an affray with aborigines on the northern tip of Cape York Pen insula.

But Captain Edward’s goal was reached without loss of life, and the Bounty prisoners were eventually taken to England for court martial.

There, three of them were con demned to death and hanged from the yard-arm; four were acquitted; and the other three were con demned to death but pardoned.

There are five separate accounts of the wreck of the Pandora, and although the exact location of the wreck is not given in any of them, it is evident from them that the wreck occurred near the spot where Mr. Darcy made his discovery.

Thus, if Mr. Darcy does organise an expedition of salvage, I think it is extremely unlikely that he will find any treasure.

But his chances of finding a col lection of gruesome relics seem to be unusually good.