Mutiny on the Bounty Coleman, McIntosh and others—generally vanished from the public eye after the closing of the procedures. After leaving Tahiti on 22 September 1789, Christian sailed "Bounty" west in search of a safe haven. He then formed the idea of settling on Pitcairn Island, far to the east of Tahiti; the island had been reported in 1767, but its exact location was never verified. After months of searching, Christian rediscovered the island on 15 January 1790, east of its recorded position. This longitudinal error contributed to the mutineers' decision to settle on Pitcairn. On arrival the ship was unloaded and stripped of
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