Day 29 Pitcairn Island

Pitcairn stamps

History
Pitcairn has a very chequered history. The 4.52 square kilometre island was first colonised by the Polynesians in the 11th century, however, Pitcairn is most famous for the mutiny on the British ship HMS Bounty, in 1788, involving Captain William Bligh, Fletcher Christian (an aristocrat, and distant relation of William Wordsworth), and the sailors on the Bounty (apparently a rough lot) together with a large number of uninhibited Tahitian women. It sounds a rather potent mix!

replica Bounty

The Bounty left England on two days before Christmas, 23rd December, 1787 tasked with collecting a cargo of breadfruit saplings, to take onto Jamaica. The saplings were to be planted in Jamaica to provide foood for the slaves working the plantations. It seems that after travelling over 43,000 kilometres, the crew decided to take an extended leave in Tahiti and revel in the the warm subtropical climate, the warm hospitality and the warmth of the beautiful Tahitian women. Stephen says it sounds like a perfect break!

Many of the men found Tahitian companions. Fletcher Christian fell deeply in love with Maimiti, a beautiful Tahitian woman whom he later married.

Early Pitcairn home

In early April, 1789, the Bounty set off on the second on the second leg of its journey, carrying a thousand breadfruit saplings. Near the island of Tonga, around three weeks later, the crew, led by first mate Fletcher Christian, staged a mutiny against Bligh, and tossed the Captain with eighteen of the crew still loyal to him
off the ship in a 7metre open boat. The crew said Bligh was a cruel and inhumane captain. It was true, but I also suspect they didn't want to leave their sybaritic life on Tahiti!

According to Captain Bligh's diary, the mutineers threw breadfruit after him as he was forced off the Bounty, and yelled, "There goes the Bounty bastard, breadfruit Bligh!"


Breadfruit
After the mutiny, Christian and his sailors returned to Tahiti, where sixteen of the twenty-five men decided to remain for good. Christian, along with eight others, their women, and a handful of Tahitian men then scoured the South Pacific for a safe haven, eventually settling on Pitcairn in January, 1790. They burned the ship, either to prevent anyone leaving, or to hide the evidence.The image is a replica.
What happened to Bligh? Miraculously, the Captain and his loyalists survived the seven-week, nearly 6,000km voyage in the cramped boat, and finally reached the island of Timor.
The mutineers who remained in Tahiti were found by a British ship and returned to England where seven were exonerated and three were hanged.

The British didn't find Pitcairn though, despite looking for three months, as they were using a map with faulty charting. The mutineers and Tahitians remained invisible to the world for eighteen years.However, the mutineers weren't a peaceful happy lot.When an American whaler discovered the island in 1808, murder and suicide had left eight of the nine mutineers dead.The last surviving mutineer, John Adams, became the leader and the colony flourished. Adamstown, the capital, is named after him.



Despite his former hard-drinking days and near illiteracy, Adams emphasized the importance of religion and education to the Bounty's second generation–which included Fletcher Christian's son, Thursday October Christian, the first child born on the island.

In 1825, a British ship arrived and formally granted Adams amnesty, and on 30 November, 1838, the Pitcairn Islands became part of the British Empire. But by 1855, the population had grown to an unsustainable 200, and Queen Victoria bequeathed them Norfolk Island, although it was thousands of miles to the west and a former penal colony (read my BLOG for the 28th).

On May 3, 1856, the entire population of 194 people reluctantly abandoned Pitcairn. Within 18 months, however, seventeen of the immigrants returned to Pitcairn, followed by another four families in 1864. Contemporary Norfolk has approximately 1000 Bounty descendants–about half its population–and celebrates Bounty Day (the day the Pitcairners first arrived) on June 8.



The current population of Pitcairn is 47, a small community directly descended from the mutineers and their Tahitian wives. They still bear the surnames of the original mutineers, and speak a dialect that is a hybrid of Tahitian and eighteenth-century English. They survive by subsistence farming, fishing, postage stamp sales and handicrafts which they sell to visitors and passing ships. Temperature is 12-32 degrees celsius and the currency is the NZ dollar.

How to get there:
By yacht
Cruise ship

Or, the Government’s dedicated passenger/shipping vessel, the Claymore II.

Get yourself to Tahiti. Book Air Tahiti domestic flights from Tahiti to Gambier airport (situated on a coral atoll) just off Mangareva. When you exit the airport you will take a 35 minute ferry ride across to Rikitea village and there, at the wharf you will find the Claymore II crew waiting for you. They will then transfer you and your luggage directly to the ship in their zodiac. You leave Mangareva for Pitcairn in the late afternoon, and arrive in Pitcairn two days later. The Longboat will be launched to pick you up and bring you into Bounty Bay.
Pitcairn Island Tourism is a good place to start for package holidays or free-travellers information.

What to do:
Fish, walk, dive, visit the museums, relax,

 talk to the locals,

 learn more about the history.