Editing Mutiny on the Bounty (section)

=== HMS ''Pandora'' mission ===
When Bligh landed in England on 14 March 1790, news of the mutiny had preceded him and he was fêted as a hero. In October 1790 at a formal [[court-martial]] for the loss of ''Bounty'', he was honourably [[acquittal|acquitted]] of responsibility for the loss and was promoted to post-captain. As an adjunct to the court-martial, Bligh brought charges against Purcell for misconduct and insubordination; the former carpenter received a reprimand.{{sfn|Hough|1972|pp=216–217}}{{sfn|Alexander|2003|p=173}}

In November 1790, the Admiralty despatched the frigate [[HMS Pandora (1779)|HMS ''Pandora'']], under Captain [[Edward Edwards (Royal Navy officer)|Edward Edwards]], to capture the mutineers and return them to England to stand trial.{{sfn|Alexander|2003|p=7}} ''Pandora'' arrived at Tahiti on 23 March 1791 and, within a few days, all fourteen surviving ''Bounty'' men had either surrendered or been captured.{{sfn|Alexander|2003|p=11}} Edwards made no distinction between mutineers and those who claimed they had been detained on ''Bounty'' unwillingly;{{sfn|Alexander|2003|p=9}} all were incarcerated in a specially constructed prison erected on ''Pandora''{{'}}s quarterdeck, dubbed "Pandora's Box".{{sfn|Dening|1992|pp=238–239}} ''Pandora'' remained at Tahiti for five weeks while Edwards unsuccessfully sought information on ''Bounty''{{'}}s whereabouts. The ship finally sailed on 8 May to search for ''Bounty'' among the thousands of southern Pacific islands.{{sfn|Hough|1972|pp=226–227}} Apart from a few spars discovered at [[Palmerston Island]], no traces of the fugitive vessel were found.{{sfn|Alexander|2003|pp=15–18}} Edwards continued the search until August, when he turned west and headed for the Dutch East Indies.{{sfn|Hough|1972|pp=227–229}} One of the islands ''Pandora'' sailed to, but did not land at, was Pitcairn Island; had Edwards checked his charts and found that this uncharted island was at the correct latitude but wrong longitude for Pitcairn Island, he could very well have fulfilled his mission by capturing the last nine ''Bounty'' mutineers. Edwards' search for the remaining mutineers ultimately proved fruitless.

When passing [[Vanikoro]] on 13 August 1791, Edwards observed [[smoke signal]]s rising from the island. Edwards, single-minded in his search for ''Bounty'' and convinced that mutineers fearful of discovery would not be advertising their whereabouts, ignored the smoke signals and sailed on. Wahlroos argues that the smoke signals were almost certainly a distress message sent by survivors of the [[Lapérouse expedition]], which later evidence indicated were still alive on Vanikoro at that time—three years after their ships ''Boussole'' and ''Astrolabe'' had foundered. Wahlroos is "virtually certain" that Edwards, whom he characterizes as one of England's most "ruthless", "inhuman", "callous", and "incompetent" naval captains, missed his chance to become "one of the heroes of maritime history" by solving the mystery of the lost expedition.<ref name="ReferenceA">Wahlroos, Sven, "Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas", Salem House Publishers, c/o Harper & Row, New York, NY, 1989</ref>

[[File:HMS Pandora.jpg|thumb|[[HMS Pandora (1779)|HMS ''Pandora'']] foundering, 29 August 1791, depicted in an 1831 etching by [[Robert Batty (artist)|Robert Batty]] from a sketch by Heywood]]

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 sank before he had finished. Heywood and nine other prisoners escaped; four ''Bounty'' men—George Stewart, Henry Hillbrant, Richard Skinner and John Sumner—drowned, along with 31 of ''Pandora''{{'s}} crew. The survivors, including the ten remaining prisoners, then embarked on an open-boat journey that largely followed Bligh's course of two years earlier. The prisoners were mostly kept bound hand and foot until they reached Kupang on 17 September.{{sfn|Alexander|2003|pp=22–26}}{{sfn|Hough|1972|pp=227–230}}

The prisoners were confined for seven weeks, at first in prison and later on a [[Dutch East India Company]] ship, before being transported to [[Cape Town]].{{sfn|Alexander|2003|pp=27, 30–31}} On 5 April 1792, they embarked for England on a British warship, {{HMS|Gorgon|1785|6}}, and arrived at [[Portsmouth]] on 19 June. There they were transferred to the guardship {{HMS|Hector|1774|6}} to await trial. The prisoners included the three detained loyalists—Coleman, McIntosh and Norman—to whom Bligh had promised justice; the blind fiddler Michael Byrne (or "Byrn"); Heywood; Morrison; and four active mutineers: Thomas Burkett, John Millward, Thomas Ellison and William Muspratt.{{sfn|Alexander|2003|pp=32–35}} Bligh, who had been given command of [[HMS Providence (1791)|HMS ''Providence'']] for a second breadfruit expedition, had left England in August 1791{{sfn|Hough|1972|p=218}} and thus would be absent from the pending court-martial proceedings.{{sfn|Dening|1992|pp=43–44}}