search she lost a Midshipman and several men, who were blown out to sea when returning from Palmerston’s Isles, in the jolly-boat, and thereby exposed to a lingering death through hunger. The schooner which had been built by the Bounty’s people, and commissioned as a tender by Captain Edwards, also parted company in a gale of wind 3 but after encountering many dangers, succeeded in reaching the island of Java, from whence she was sent as a present to the Governor of Timor, as a return for his hospitality towards the Pandora’s officers when they arrived with their prisoners at Coupang, after being shipwrecked on the reef between New Holland and New Guinea, a disaster which we feel the more pain in relating, as it is impossible to do so without again reflecting upon their commander’s inhuman conduct[1].
The Pandora got sight of the reef in question on the 28th Aug. 1791, and her second Lieutenant[2] was immediately sent to ascertain if any opening existed through which she could pass. At 5 P.M. he made a signal in the affirmative; but Captain Edwards, wishing to be well informed on the subject, continued lying-to until seven o’clock, by which time the current had set the ship so near to the reef that soundings were obtained with fifty fathoms of line, although no bottom could be previously found with more than double that quantity. The main-yard was then braced up, in order to stand off; but, before the courses could be set, she truck with great violence upon a patch of coral, and almost instantly bilged. The sails were scarcely furled, and boats hoisted out, when the carpenter reported that she had nine feet water in the hold.
Three of the Bounty’s people (Coleman, Norman, and
- ↑ The schooner’s dimensions were as follows:– length of the keel, 30 feet; length on deck, 35 feet; extreme breadth, 9 feet 6 inches; depth of the hold, 5 feet. She sailed remarkably well; and, being afterwards employed in the sea-otter trade, made the quickest passage ever known from China to the Sandwich Islands. This memorable little vessel, also, being purchased at Canton by the late Captain Broughton, to assist him in surveying the coast of Tartary, became the means of preserving the crew of H.M.S. Providence, 112 in number, when wrecked to the eastward of Formosa, on the 17th May, 1797. See Memoir of Lord George Stuart.
- ↑ Mr. Robert Corner, late Superintendent of the Marine Police at Malta.
