Sinking of the HMS Pandora 1791
31 August 2023
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It is always interesting learning about historic events, and this week I searched a few details about HMS Pandora and reading articles and books, I realised this week was the anniversary of the ship hitting the rocks on 28 August and sinking on 29 August 1791.
HMS Pandora was a British Royal Navy warship, with Captain Edward Edwards and crew, was sent to the South Pacific in pursuit of the Bounty mutineers. They found some of the Bounty crew at Tahiti but did not finding the HMAT Bounty as the other mutineers had already sailed away and settled on Pitcairn Island. Unable to find the Bounty the Captain sailed for home, but the voyage ended at the far north area of the Great Barrier Reef.
The HMS Pandora was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef on a remote outer reef area 140km east of Cape York. The ship laid undisturbed for almost 200 years and discovered in the 1970s. The official expedition vessel divers surveyed and recorded the underwater grave of the HMS Pandora and the articles I read stated that over 6000 artifacts were retrieved from the ocean floor, and many others remain as a protected maritime archaeologist shipwreck site.
232 years ago, I have read that 89 HMS Pandora crew and 10 prisoners survived the
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sinking of the vessel and 35 perished. Records show that 31 crew and 4 of the 14
arrested Bounty Crew died. Three human remains were also found on the ship
wreck, which is also referred to as a grave site.
CONSERVATION,, MARITIME HISTORY, MUSEUM OF TROPICAL QUEENSLAND
After sinking in 1791, damaged but substantially intact – the hull settled into the sea floor on its starboard side and appears to have been buried over time. As layers of sediment were accumulating within and around the hull, the exposed upper levels of the vessel collapsed and disintegrated as a result of attack by marine borers, the effect of currents and, to a lesser extent, wave motion.
In 1995 it was estimated that approximately 590 cubic metres of sediment would require systematic excavation to uncover all of the hull remains. Across nine Queensland Museum expeditions to Pandora, archaeologists excavated approximately 240 cubic metres of sediment. After the final expedition, the site was recovered with sand and sediment and to this day, the hull and many other objects remain in their original resting place over 40m deep on the floor of the Coral Sea.
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Compiled by Dr Maddy McAllister. Maddy is the Senior Curator of Maritime Archaeology at the Queensland Museum Network. QLDMUSEUM25 AUGUST, 2021
The survivors spent two nights on Escape Cay, before setting out for Timor-Kupang, the closest European settlement in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). They arrived in Timor after an arduous 18-day, 2200 km voyage through the Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait and across the Arafura Sea.
Arriving in England in June 1792, the 10 surviving mutineers were sent to Portsmouth to stand trial, the charge was mutiny. Four mutineers were found not guilty and immediately released, as William Bligh had vouched for their innocence. Six prisoners were found guilty and sentenced to death, however, only three were actually executed. Upon appeal, one was acquitted on a legal technicality and two received a Royal pardon.
HMS Pandora Legacy Project
Found in 1977, HMS Pandora was extensively investigated by the Queensland Museum from 1979 to 1999. A total of 9 seasons, spanning months resulted in over 6,000 artefacts held within the state maritime archaeology collection housed at Museum of Tropical Queensland, Townsville.
The Queensland Museum Network is based at the Museum of Tropical Queensland, Townsville. Visit the “HMS Pandora Gallery” to view artifacts and read the stories of this famous story. I have read that the HMS Pandora has been recorded as the oldest British shipwreck found on the Great Barrier Reef.
I have included internet links and extracts from these articles, along with images of the divers working on the wreck site. I also found the image of a historic painting “Sinking of HMS Pandora” by Oswald Brett
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Betty Matthews
September 2023