Complement of HMS Bounty Heywood, who were both 15 when they left England. Complement of HMS Bounty The complement of , the Royal Navy ship on which a historic mutiny occurred in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789, comprised 46 men on its departure from England in December 1787 and 44 at the time of the mutiny, including her commander Lieutenant William Bligh. All but two of those aboard were Royal Navy personnel; the exceptions were two civilian botanists engaged to supervise the breadfruit plants "Bounty" was tasked to take from Tahiti to the West Indies. Of the 44 aboard at the time
Mutiny on the Bounty on 8 May, to search for Christian and "Bounty" among the thousands of southern Pacific islands. Apart from a few spars discovered at Palmerston Island, no traces of the fugitive vessel were found. Edwards continued the search until August, when he turned west and headed for the Dutch East Indies. On 29 August 1791, "Pandora" ran aground on the outer Great Barrier Reef. The men in "Pandora's Box" were ignored as the regular crew attempted to prevent the ship from foundering. When Edwards gave the order to abandon ship, "Pandora"s armourer began to remove the prisoners' shackles, but the ship