More than 200 years after HMS Pandora struck the Great Barrier Reef and sank, a University of Queensland researcher is attempting to add to history by working on human skeletal remains recovered from the wreck by Queensland Museum archaeologists.
With no definitive record giving names and numbers of lives lost below decks, Anatomical Sciences honours student Dayman Steptoe is gearing up to try to identify what he believes are the remains of four or five people.
It is known - from the Pandora's surgeon - that two of the crew were accidentally killed when the ship hit the reef, one by a falling mast and a second by a cannon sliding across the deck.
These two would have been taken below decks but the other skeletal material remains a mystery. The only thing that can be said about them is that they were among the 35 lives lost when the ship sank.
HMS Pandora is best known as the frigate which the British Admiralty sent to the South Pacific to search for and capture the Bounty and bring to justice the mutineers who had seized the vessel and cast adrift Captain William Bligh with eighteen loyal crew.
Fourteen mutineers had surrendered or were rounded up when the Pandora dropped anchor off Tahiti. Another two had already been killed.
The mutineers were placed in a makeshift wooden cell constructed on Pandora's deck which was subsequently named 'Pandora's Box'. Its area was just 3.3m x 5.4m and 1.5m high.
After a fruitless three-month search for the remaining nine mutineers, the captain of the Pandora, Edward Edwards, decided to return to England in August 1791.
On the return leg to Timor via the Torres Strait, the ship struck a reef and, despite desperate efforts by the crew, sank the following morning.
While it was the end of the Pandora, for Mr Steptoe it marks the beginning of the remaining chapters of Pandora's story.
The wreck was discovered in 1977, lying in 33m of water about 120 km east of Cape York. Since that time the Pandora, widely regarded as one of the most significant shipwrecks in the Southern Hemisphere, has produced an exciting variety of artefacts including dinner sets, bottles and even a silver and gold fob watch.
What interested Mr Steptoe was the discovery in 1986 of a human skeleton, buried in the stern section of the Pandora. More skeletal remains were recovered from 1995 to 1998.
'My research will piece together, through forensic techniques, the possible identification of these individuals or at least narrow down the list,' Mr Steptoe said.
'I will be looking for markers which identify age, sex, race and height, checking what the log books have recorded, carrying out DNA extraction and even facial reconstruction. Some of the best forensic scientists in Queensland are involved and we will be using the latest techniques available. DNA extraction will be done at the John Tonge Centre for Forensic Biology.
'Captain Edward's own account of the lost crew makes no separate mention of the two men killed prior to the ship's sinking so already we have discrepancies in Pandora's history.
'The only reason the remains are still there is that these people were for some reason below deck when the ship sank. Preparations were already made to leave the ship, so it is hard to believe that some of the crew were still below deck and it will certainly be tricky to work out.'
Mr Steptoe said he would be using scientific information gathered from the wreck to piece together a three-dimensional computer image of the ship and the position of each individual.
'Much of Pandora's finer detail is really just coming to light. The Queensland Museum has been excavating since 1983 and we are learning so much all the time,' he said.
'Excavation will continue until 2001 but before then the Museum will open a new branch dedicated to the Pandora in Townsville. Funds for this project have been made available by the Townsville-based Pandora Foundation and the Queensland Government.
'From an archaeological point of view, the Pandora really is a time capsule of an 18th century British ship.'
Mr Steptoe said although the Bounty certainly had its place in maritime history, the story of the Pandora was just as fascinating.
'It is a matter of coming up with the rest of the story. And from a historical point of view I am trying to put faces to the tragedy,' he said.
'It is important for me to try to identify those individuals who went down with the ship. I know that if they were my relatives I would want to know what happened regardless of the fact that it was 207 years ago.
'My research will provide new information, enabling part of Pandora's history to be rewritten and this is pretty exciting and challenging.'
For further information contact Dayman Steptoe (email or telephone 07 3371 3618) or Queensland Museum Maritime Archaeology curator Peter Gesner (telephone 07 3840 7673).
