Wrecked on the Reef
An unfortunate combination of factors conspired to cause the Pandora to run aground, and ultimately sink. Bad or reckless seamanship does not appear to have been a factor. Nor does unusually bad weather.
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The Great Barrier Reef lives up to its name
Having set a westerly course through the South-West Pacific, the Pandora encountered the first islands (Mer Island) and reefs of the Great Barrier Reef on 25 August 1791. Edwards named them the "Murray Islands", but did not send boats ashore to investigate. To bypass them, a southerly course was followed.
But the Great Barrier Reef was doing justice to its name-no suitable passage was found. After three days of staying safe in open Coral Sea waters by night, and venturing back towards the reefs by day, a large opening was eventually sighted.
A yawl was launched and Lt Corner was given orders to reconnoitre the entrance. Late in the afternoon, Corner signalled from the yawl that a navigable passage had been found. But as night was approaching and probably because he was afraid that the yawl could be separated, Captain Edwards ordered Corner back to the ship to get the yawl onboard before nightfall.
Captain Edwards:
"At three quarters past four he made the signal that there was a channel through the reef fit for a ship, and after, signal was made and repeated for the boat to return to board, and after dark, false fires and muskets were fired from the ship, and answered `with muskets by the boat repeatedly to point out the situation of each other. We sounded frequently, but had no ground at 110 fathoms."
Pandora Reef earns its name
In ordering the yawl back to the ship to be picked up before nightfall, Captain Edwards was undoubtedly taking precaution against losing another of the ship's boats. With the tender, a jollyboat and 14 men already missing, the mission could ill afford the loss of another boat and more men.
This probably accounts for the Pandora actually coming into the entrance late in the afternoon. With the sun low on the western horizon, visibility would have been greatly reduced by reflection and glare, and any reefs lying ahead would have been difficult for the lookouts to see.
Hove to, awaiting the arrival of the yawl alongside, the Pandora was particularly vulnerable to the strong tidal current that was driving her further into the entrance-where it was low tide at approximately 4.30 pm. With a flooding tide, there would have been a strong current setting the vessel to the west after about 6 pm. The Pandora struck the reef around 7.20 pm.
It is likely that the crew may have been distracted by the signalling between the ship and Corner's yawl. More significantly, with sunset around 6 pm-and the sun low on the western horizon after about 5 pm-it would have been very difficult to discern waves breaking on the small submerged coral outcrop in this part of Pandora Entrance.
This outcrop-now unofficially referred to as "Pandora Reef"-is surrounded on all sides by depths in excess of 30 metres (16 fathoms). Closer to high tide-around 11 pm that day-there would have been four to five metres (12 to 16 feet) of water over the outcrop. It is possible that the Pandora may have cleared the reef-or at least not impacted on it as heavily-had she run onto it later in the evening.