Mutiny on the Bounty "Pandora" to apprehend the mutineers. Fourteen were captured in Tahiti and imprisoned on board "Pandora", which then searched without success for Christian's party that had hidden on Pitcairn Island. After turning back towards England, "Pandora" ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, with the loss of 31 crew and four prisoners from "Bounty". The 10 surviving detainees reached England in June 1792 and were court martialled; four were acquitted, three were pardoned and three were hanged. Christian's group remained undiscovered on Pitcairn until 1808, by which time only one mutineer, John Adams, remained alive. Almost all his fellow-mutineers, including Christian,
Mutiny on the Bounty and Valentine—19 men were crowded into the launch, leaving it dangerously low in the water with only seven inches of freeboard. The 25 men remaining on "Bounty" included the committed mutineers who had taken up arms, the loyalists detained against their will, and others for whom there was no room in the launch. At around 10:00 the line holding the launch to the ship was cut; a little later, Bligh ordered a sail to be raised. Their immediate destination was the nearby island of Tofua, clearly marked on the horizon by the plume of smoke rising from its volcano. Bligh