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Pacific Islands Monthly

Ancient Cornish Inn Is Link With The Bounty

There seems to be almost no end to the discoveries you can make connected with the famous mutiny on the "Bounty" of 172 years ago.

By Robert Langdon

One such discovery that I made recently is that at Rest ronguet Creek, near Falmouth, Cornwall, there is an ancient inn that was once owned by one of the principal characters in the Bounty story. And the present owner is still interested in the Bounty.

r[E earlier owner was the notori ous Capt. Edward Edwards, commander of HMS Pandora, who was sent to the Pacific in 1790 to find and arrest the Bounty mutineers.

The Pandora, as every student of the Bounty story knows, was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef on August 28, 1791, while returning to England with 14 members of the Bounty’s crew whom Capt. Edwards had arrested in Tahiti.

Four of the Bounty people were drowned when the Pandora sank.

The rest barely escaped with their lives, for Edwards had imprisoned

them in fetters in a roundhouse on the quarter deck, and he refused to have mercy on them even when his ship was sinking.

Courtmartialled

When Edwards got back to Eng land with the 10 survivors, he was courtmartialled for losing the Pandora but was honorably acquitted.

He was then a man of 50 and was apparently considered too old for further active service.

In these circumstances, he bought the inn at Restronguet Creek, and he lived there on half-pay for the rest of his days.

The inn, a thatch-roof building about 1250 AD, was then called The Ship.

But Edwards renamed it Pandora after his last, ill-fated com mand, and this is the name it still bears today.

Edwards had a model made of the Pandora which he installed at the inn as an ornament.

The model, which is still in exist ence, is believed to have been made either by a man who served in the Pandora or who helped in the build ing of her.

Made Him Admiral Whether Edwards was a more genial fellow as an innkeeper than he was as a naval officer, I have been unable to find out.

But he was certainly an unusual one, for when he died in 1815 he was almost Admiral of the Fleet In his day, naval officers could (Over)

This model of HMS “Pan ora” is in Cornwall's Pandora [?]nn, near Falmouth (seen be [?]w). The commanding officer [?]f HMS Pandora” lived there [?]fter playing his part in the [?]rama of the mutiny on the Bounty”, and he also erected [?]e model. The original “Pan ora” was wrecked on the Great [?]arrier Reef in 1791.

not be retired, and they received promotions automatically when those ahead of them in the service died.

Edwards, who had been a post captain for nine years when he be gan his voyage in the Pandora, was promoted rear-admiral in 1799, vice admiral in 1805, and admiral in 1810.

There were then three grades of admiral in each rank—blue, white and red. The most junior admiral was a rear-admiral of the blue, and the most senior, admiral of the red.

Edwards died as an admiral of the white, so he was just two steps short of being Admiral of the Fleet!

Airman Owns It Now The present owner of Pandora Inn is Mr. Peter Howard-Williams, one of the Battle of Britain “Few”, and a former Assistant Air Attache at the British Embassy in Pans.

Mr Howard-Williams and I have exchanged several letters recently about the Bounty, Capt. Edwards and the Pandora, and in one of his letters to me he enclosed the two

photographs reproduced with this

Describing the model of the Pan dora, Mr. Howard-Williams said; “It is approximately 6 ft by 6 tt and has the most tremendous amount of detail.

“People come from all over the world to see it.

“The model has Pandora caived across the stern, and it has been much admired by experts.”

Mr. Howard-Williams is greatly interested in an old wreck which was found off the northern coast of Queensland last November, and which I suggested in January PIM might be that of HMS Pandora.

If the wreck is ever raised, and if it should prove to be the Pandora, Mr. Howard-Williams says he would like to obtain a piece of it for the Pandora Inn.