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Shipwreck · Found

HMS Pandora

Wrecked 1791, Great Barrier Reef, off Cape York, QLD, Australia
RECOVERED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

HMS Pandora: still unexplained.

Naval gear and the Bounty mutineers' irons

The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Naval gear and the Bounty mutineers' irons
The account

Sent to drag the Bounty mutineers home in irons, HMS Pandora struck the Great Barrier Reef in 1791 and sank, taking four prisoners down with her.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • The site is documented at Great Barrier Reef, off Cape York, QLD, Australia; the open questions now are access and what remains, not where it is.
  • Confirm the permit and ownership before any dive or visit, since sites like this are usually protected.
  • What is there: Naval gear and the Bounty mutineers' irons.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • The site is documented at Great Barrier Reef, off Cape York, QLD, Australia; the open questions now are access and what remains, not where it is.
  • Confirm the permit and ownership before any dive or visit, since sites like this are usually protected.
  • What is there: Naval gear and the Bounty mutineers' irons.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position -11.360°, 143.960° View on the Map