1983 expedition
This was the first expedition to the Pandora by the Queensland Museum. It was carried out with supplementary funding from the Commonwealth Government's Historic Shipwrecks Program. The expedition was a national effort, with volunteers and professional team members coming from museums or heritage management agencies in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Overall project leadership was by the Queensland Museum's Maritime Archaeology Curator Ron Coleman; archaeological direction was by the Western Australian Maritime Museum's (WAMM) Graeme Henderson.
Objectives
Using the photomosaic from the 1979 WAMM identification survey as a guide, the main objectives of the expedition were exploratory:
- to establish a permanent grid reference system,
- to determine the extent and orientation of the hull remains (keel, sternpost etc),
- to assess the condition and range of artefact material in the wreck, and
- to compile a photomosaic comprising 250 stereo pairs of the 20 x 50 metre wreck area.
A network of grid reference poles was erected by triangulation over an area of 20 by 50 metres. The network was established by hammering into the seabed three parallel 50 metre lines of aluminium poles, each spaced at 10 metre intervals. The 40 mm Ø poles, each 4 metres long, were driven into the seabed vertically, to a depth of about 1.50 metres.
An arbitrary datum height was subsequently selected on the 0.0 pole. The datum height was then transferred to five additional poles (2.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0 and 10.0) which were all subsequently sawn of at datum height, which was set at 100.
All subsequent Z-measurements relate to this datum height. For instance, a value of 101.45 indicates that the artefact was located 1.45 metres "deeper" than datum height; while a value of 99.02 indicates that the object was located 0.98 metres "higher" than datum height. (NB: artefacts with a Z-measurement "higher" than datum can still be buried because of the sloping nature of the seabed in which the wreck was buried!) Datum pole 0.0 is approximately 3 metres "deeper" that datum pole 50.20.
Trench 1
The first probe was a trench measuring 2 x 5 metres around the copper-sheathed remains of the stern post. The intention of this trench was to follow the stern post down to the keel. After several days of excavating, however, it was apparent that a deep trench over a small area of the wreck could not be excavated easily. One reason was that due to the sediment's loose and coarse-grained composition, it proved impossible to contain the surrounding sediment without physically shoring up the trench's sides. Materials were unfortunately not to hand to even make temporary shoring. Thus, within several days, it was clear that more deeply buried hull remains, especially the keel, keelson and deadwood, would not be uncovered.
View graphic of the 1983 site plan with cardinal grid reference points. The graphic will open in a new window.
Another reason preventing exposure of deeper-lying parts of the wreck was the artefact clusters that were encountered as the sediment was being removed. The majority of limited diving time was spent on measuring-in their location before they were raised. No trench went deeper than 0.5 metres. Consequently, the keel, keelson and deadwood were not reached, and the orientation of the hull remains was not determined during the first season.
Trenches 2 and 3
Trench 2 (2 x 5 metres) was started in the bow area. The bow trench appeared to contain substantial copper-sheathed timbers buried approximately 0.35 metres in the sediment. A distinctive feature of this sheathing was that it opened outward toward the port side, whereas in the stern section the portside sheathing had collapsed inwards, toward the centreline of the hull. This suggested a possible twisting of the hull as it broke up.
In addition to sheathing remains from the port side of the hull, the bow trench contained two large earthenware storage jars (olive oil jars), several fittings for the rigging, the remnants of an iron box or tank and a full set of bronze rudder fittings which appeared to be concreted together. One of the olive oil jars was raised. (MA 138)
Another trench (trench 3) was excavated in the midship area around a cannon lying on the seabed.
Trench 3 (2 x 2 metres) contained a spectacular diversity of very small and fragile objects, densely clustered under one of the 20 six-pounder cannon with which the Pandora was armed.
More than 120 objects, including the gun, were retrieved from the top (i.e. < 50 cm) layer of sediment under and around the cannon.
Other work
Photogrammetric (stereo pairs) coverage of 1000 square metres of seabed was commenced.
The location of the wreck was fixed relative to permanent survey marks on Moulter Cay.
A documentary film team led by David Flatman spent 10 days on-site with the QM team to film for a documentary film called "In the Wake of the Bounty", narrated by David Attenborough.
Findings
Although not entirely successful in terms of providing definitive information about the extent and orientation of the hull remains, the 1983 season did give a wealth of information about the condition and range of material in and around the wreck.
256 registered items were recovered and subsequently registered in the Queensland Museum Maritime Archaeology (MA) collection as MA 11-MA 320.*
All of them were in surprisingly good condition and state of preservation; even fragile organic material, such as a lead pencil (MA 81). This indicated that environmental conditions at greater sediment depth would favour preservation of ship's timbers as well as other organic materials. Also, it was obvious that the context, condition and diversity of the artefacts called for more than a haphazard approach to artefact retrieval.
* A registered inventory number can consist of more than one object (i.e. a cache of 101 lead pistol shot).