Voyage of H.M.S. 'Pandora'

by Edward Edwards; surgeon George Hamilton

[70-1] If he had kept this course he would have struck the New Guinea Coast again a little East of the Maikasa River.

[70-2] East Bay.

[71-1] It is difficult to understand how Edwards failed to see Flinders Passage, which, while not free from obstructions to the westward, would have admitted him to a safe anchorage at the Murray Islands, inside the Barrier Reef.

[71-2] It was an unfortunate choice. Had he steered north on first encountering the reefs he would have made the coast which he might have followed in safety, as Bligh did in his boat voyage after the mutiny, by what is now known as the Great North-East Channel. He was led Southward by his plan of using the Endeavour Straits. See Hamilton's account, [pp. 141-2].

[73-1] Two men were crushed to death; one by a gun that had broken loose, and the other by a falling spar. The whole ship's company seems to have behaved splendidly, working at the pumps and at the sail they were preparing to haul under the ship's bottom until they could scarcely stand for fatigue, with nothing to replenish their strength but "a cask of excellent strong ale which we brewed at Anamooka" (Hamilton).

[73-2] Every reader must be struck by the fact that in his description of this disaster, Edwards never once speaks of the prisoners. Hamilton, it is true, does say "The prisoners were ordered to be let out of irons," but another account, ascribed to Lieutenant Corner, second lieutenant of the Pandora, throws a sinister light on this part of the narrative. "Three of the Bounty's people, Coleman, Norman, and M'Intosh, were now let out of irons, and sent to work at the pumps. The others offered their assistance, and begged to be allowed a chance of saving their lives; instead of which, two additional sentinels were placed over them, with orders to shoot any who should attempt to get rid of their fetters. Seeing no prospect of escape, they betook themselves to prayer, and prepared to meet their fate, everyone expecting that the ship would soon go to pieces, her rudder and part of the sternpost being already beat away. No notice was taken of the prisoners, as is falsely stated by the author of the 'Pandora's Voyage,' although Captain Edwards was entreated by Mr. Heywood to have mercy upon them, when he passed over their prison to make his own escape, the ship then lying on her broadside, with the larboard bow completely under water. Fortunately the master-at-arms, either by accident or design, when slipping from the roof of 'Pandora's Box' into the sea, let the keys of the irons fall through the scuttle or entrance, which he had just before opened, and thus enabled them to commence their own liberation, in which they were generously assisted, at the imminent risk of his own life, by William Moulter, a boatswain's mate who clung to the coamings, and pulled the long bars through the shackles, saying he would set them free, or go to the bottom with them. Scarcely was this effected when the ship went down. The master-at-arms and all the sentinels sunk to rise no more. Among the drowned were Mr. Stewart, John Sumner, Richard Skinner, and Henry Hillbrandt, the whole of whom perished with their hands still in manacles."

Some allowance is to be made both for the confusion of a shipwreck, and for the natural fear of the commander that in the loosening of the ties of authority natural to such a moment, the liberation among his crew of a number of men who had already mutinied successfully, and were going home with a rope about their necks, would be an act of merciful folly. This, however, does not excuse him for refusing his prisoners the shelter of an old sail on the sand cay, and so obliging them to get shelter from the sun by burying themselves neck-deep in the sand, as Heywood afterwards stated. Heywood further asserted that after the vessel struck the prisoners, having wrenched themselves out of their irons, implored Edwards to let them out of "Pandora's Box," but that he had them all ironed again.

[74-1] In his evidence before the court-martial Edwards said: "The double canoe, that was able to support a considerable number of men, broke adrift with only one man, and was bulged upon a reef, and afforded us no help when she was so much wanted."

[74-2] Hamilton says 34.

[75-1] Each boat was supplied with the latitude and longitude of Timor, 1100 miles distant. As soon as they embarked the oars were laid athwart the boat so that they could stow two tiers of men. The men were distributed as follows: