PANDORA'S LAST VOYAGE

Rawson relates the ill-fated voyage of HMS Pandora which was sent out in 1790 to round up the Bounty's mutineers. At that time, Captain Bligh was held in high esteem by Englishmen and Fletcher Christian thought despicable. The Pandora was captained by Edward Edwards, who by all accounts was a greater pain in the fo'csle than even Bligh had been. His mission was tremendously difficult. He had to find the mutineers among the thousands of South Sea Islands with no clear idea as to which one they might have fled. However, on Papara, Edwards did indeed find some of the mutineers and eventually captured quite a handful although he missed Christian. The Pandora then sank in the Straits of Torres and Edwards and 100 men found themselves in open boats making the same burning journey Bligh had made before them.