Ducie Island named it in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie, under whom he had served earlier in his career. HMS "Pandora" turned northwards from Ducie and, because of this change of course, Edwards did not sight the other islands of the group. If HMS "Pandora" had maintained its course, it would eventually have reached Pitcairn Island and found the "Bounty" mutineers. The crew of the whaleship "Essex", which a whale had attacked and sunk in November 1820, mistakenly believed that they had reached Ducie after a month at sea in two whaleboats. In fact they had reached Henderson Island. Captain
Mutiny on the Bounty officers. These signed the ship's roster as able seamen, but were quartered with the midshipmen and treated on equal terms with them. Most of "Bounty"'s crew were chosen by Bligh or were recommended to him by influential patrons. William Peckover the gunner and Joseph Coleman the armourer had been with Cook and Bligh on HMS "Resolution"; several others had sailed under Bligh more recently on the "Britannia". Among these was the 23-year-old Fletcher Christian, who came from a wealthy Cumberland family descended from Manx gentry. Christian had chosen a life at sea rather than the legal career envisaged by his