HAMILTON, George.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Voyage Round the World, in His Majesty's Frigate Pandora. First edition. This "lucid, entertaining work" is the only contemporary account of the expedition sent to capture Fletcher Christian and his followers (Maxton, p. 10). Hamilton's account "is one that few naval surgeons of that day could have written. The style, though flippant, is remarkable for a cynical but always good-natured humour, and on the rare occasions when he thought it professionally incumbent on him to be serious... his remarks display observation and good sense" (Thomson, p. 6).After Bligh's return to England in 1790, the Admiralty sent the frigate Pandora - with Edward Edwards as captain and Hamilton as ship's surgeon - to capture the mutineers. "In 1791, the expedition arrived at Tahiti and arrested fourteen of the mutineers. A cage constructed on the quarterdeck of the ship to hold the prisoners was nicknamed 'Pandora's Box'" (Hill). On leaving Tahiti, the ship was wrecked in the Endeavour Strait, and only 10 of 14 prisoners survived. They were put on trial once back in England, and three were hanged.

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