HMS Briton (1812) crew that had seized HMS "Bounty" from its captain Lieutenant William Bligh during the 1789 mutiny aboard the ship. With the coming of the Pax Britannica in 1815, "Briton" undertook various voyages before she was broken up in 1860. At the time of HMS "Briton"s launch, the United Kingdom was at war with the United States and France such that vessels of either country were considered legitimate prizes of war. As a result, on 1 December 1812 "Briton" recaptured , which the American privateer "Grand Turk" had captured a few weeks earlier as "Wolfe's Cove" was sailing from Quebec to
Mutiny on the Bounty Betham, a Heywood family friend who was Bligh's father-in-law. The two botanists, or "gardeners", were chosen by Banks. The chief botanist, David Nelson, was a veteran of Cook's third expedition who had been to Tahiti and had learned some of the natives' language. Nelson's assistant William Brown was a former midshipman who had seen naval action against the French. Banks also helped to secure the official midshipmen's berths for two of his protégés, Thomas Hayward and John Hallett. Overall, "Bounty"'s crew was relatively youthful, the majority being under 30; at the time of departure, Bligh was 33 years old. Among