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 Endeavour Strait and across the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans to the West Indies islands in the Caribbean. "Bounty" would thus complete a circumnavigation of the Earth in the Southern Hemisphere. "Bounty"'s complement was 46 men, comprising 44 Royal Navy seamen (including Bligh) and two civilian botanists. Directly beneath Bligh were his warrant officers, appointed by the Navy Board and headed by the sailing master John Fryer. The other warrant officers were the boatswain, the surgeon, the carpenter, and the gunner. To the two master's mates and two midshipmen were added several honorary midshipmen—so-called "young gentlemen" who were aspirant naval