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At nine o’clock precisely, the door opened again and the members of the Court filed in to their places. At the order of the master-at-arms the audience rose, and when the members of the Court were in their places, all were seated again. The names of the twelve men who held over us the power of life and death were as follows:—

The Right Honourable Lord Hood, Vice-Admiral of the Blue, and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s ships and vessels at Portsmouth Harbour, President

CaptainSir Andrew Snape Hammond, Bart.“John Colpoys“Sir George Montague“Sir Roger Curtis“John Bazeley“Sir Andrew Snape Douglas“John Thomas Duckworth“John Nicholson Inglefield“John Knight“Albemarle Bertie“Richard Goodwin Keats

My lethargy of the earlier part of the morning left me as I gazed at the impressive scene before me. At first my attention was fully engaged with our judges, whose faces I examined one by one as the opportunity presented itself. They were, for the most part, men in middle life, and one would have known them anywhere, in any dress, for officers in His Majesty’s Navy. As I looked at their stern, wind-roughened, impassive faces, my heart sank. I recalled Dr. Hamilton’s words: “But these men will know nothing of Christian’s character, and their sympathies will all be with Captain Bligh. You will have to prove your story of that conversation with Christian beyond the shadow of a doubt.” The only one of the twelve men who might, I thought, be willing to give a prisoner the benefit of a doubt was Sir George Montague, captain of the Hector.