Complement of HMS Bounty in the ship's launch, while 25, a mixture of mutineers and detainees, remained on board under Fletcher Christian. Bligh led his loyalists to safety in the open boat, and ultimately back to England. The mutineers divided—most settled on Tahiti, where they were captured by in 1791 and returned to England for trial, while Christian and eight others evaded discovery on Pitcairn Island. The Admiralty rated "Bounty" as a cutter, the smallest category of warship—this meant that she was commanded not by a captain but by a lieutenant, with no other commissioned officers aboard, and without the usual detachment of Royal
HMS Pandora (1779) HMS Pandora (1779) HMS "Pandora" was a 24-gun "Porcupine"-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy launched in May 1779. She is best known as the ship sent in 1790 to search for the "Bounty" mutineers. The "Pandora" was partially successful by capturing 14 of the mutineers, but was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef on the return voyage in 1791. The "Pandora" is considered to be one of the most significant shipwrecks in the Southern Hemisphere. Her first service was in the Channel during the 1779 threatened invasion by the combined fleets of France and Spain. She was deployed