Pitcairn Island January 23

Quick Review. Key figures Captain Bligh and his First Officer Fletcher Christian are sailing HMAS Bounty on a mission to Tahiti.  They were to transplant Bread Fruit plants and bring them back as a cheap source of food for slaves.  After leaving Tahiti on return voyage there is a munity led by Christian.  Bligh and 18 loyal sailors are set adrift in a long boat.  Eventually they make it back to England in one of the greatest feats of open boat sailing and navigation lost to history.  Christian and the Bounty return to Tahiti, gather supplies, Tahitian men and women and set sail for parts unknown.  Eventfully they find and settle on Pitcairn Island, a small island truly in the middle of nowhere.  Those are facts not often in dispute.  We have learned that everything else is very controversial and depends on whom you are speaking too.   Some say Bligh was a tyrant and merciless captain who drove Christian to mutiny to save the crew.  Some say Bligh was man of the times and actually kinder to his crew than most and Christian was despondent and unbalanced.  He led a mutiny with men unhappy about leaving wives and the pleasures of Tahiti.  You can find books, narratives and eye witness testimony on both sides.  Movies tend to go with the mean Bligh; it makes a better story.

Our visit to Pitcairn Island was to meet with the descendants of the mutineers, hear their story and buy their locally produced items.  Here is our day.

This is a picture approaching the island.  You can look 360⁰ and not see another piece of land.  We are two days sailing from Easter Island. 

This is a picture of the homes and community buildings on the Island.  You are looking across Bounty Bay.  Between us and the land 211 years ago the Bounty was burned and sunk by the mutineers.  We actually arrived on Bounty Day, the 211^th anniversary of the ship burning. 

We did not go ashore.  The population came out in their long boat to board our ship.  There are 62 people on the island.  Ten are contract employees: teacher, immigration officer, doctor and nurses plus their families.  They come to the island on two year contracts.  Seven are visiting people.  There are 45 permanent residents currently on the island.  There is a general store, community meeting room, one room school, church, and medical center.  The children stay here until they are 15.  Then they have the option to stay or go to New Zealand to finish their education.  Electricity comes from a generator run three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening.  That is sufficient to keep food in refrigerators and freezers safe.  Hot water is heated by wood in individual homes.  They have satellite TV, internet, and telephones.  They receive a subsidy from England and a quarterly supply ship from New Zealand.   Their primary source of income is selling stamps and other items made on the island.  You can find these on their website.

This is the long boat coming out to our ship.

The long boat holds the entire population of the island plus the immigration officer.  We had our passports stamped (for $10 each).  These are all descendants of the original mutineers that stayed on Pitcairn Island.  All of their goods for sale are stored under the floor boards.

These are pictures of the sales on the Lido deck of our ship.  It may look like a mad house but it wasn’t.  Noreen is in the picture but you can’t find her.  The two bearded gentleman in the second picture are descendants of Fletcher Christian.

While many mutineer family names were represented, Christen is the most famous.  Two family tables from his line.

The Islanders gave a presentation on the history and life on the island.  They need some help with their PowerPoint slides but I’ll save that for my next visit.  We had a very interesting day.  We were not aware of the all the controversy that surrounds the history of the Bounty mutiny. 

Now it is off to Tahiti, two sailing days away.

Hope all is well.