In July, 1791, Captain William Bligh purchased on behalf of the Admiralty Earnshaw's chronometer no. 1503 at a price of for an expedition he was to command in to transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies. This was the second expedition that Bligh had undertaken with this mission. The first expedition was with HMS "Bounty" which had ended in the infamous mutiny led by Fletcher Christian and from which Bligh returned to England only with the greatest of difficulties. The second expedition, however, was entirely successful.