HMS Pandora-sequel to the Bounty mutiny

Predictably, the Admiralty took more than a dim view of the events described in Bligh's report. The Royal Navy frigate HMS Pandora was dispatched to the South Pacific in 1790 to capture the 25 men who had "pirated" the Bounty and cast adrift her captain, William Bligh. The mission to reclaim the Bounty and to capture the mutineers and bring them home to stand trial was entrusted to Captain Edward Edwards.

On her South Pacific voyage, the Pandora was carrying a special armament of 20 six-pounder carriage guns and 4 eighteen-pounder carronades. She was heavily laden with provisions for the additional officers, midshipmen and seamen and with stores and fittings. All would be needed to crew, refit and supply the Bounty should she be recaptured and brought back to England.

There were 135 men onboard when she left Portsmouth. The Pandora departed on 7 November 1790, sailed around Cape Horn, via Tenerife and Rio de Janeiro, and arrived at Matavai Bay (Tahiti) on 23 March 1791.