March 21 Pitcairn Island

A very interesting and exciting day.  We rose early to hear the announcements of the plan for the day.  Apparently, the surf is too rough for us to make a landing using the zodiac boats, so the plan is that the islanders will send out long boats, we will go from the ship to the zodiacs, then from the zodiacs to the long boats, which will take us into Bounty Bay on Pitcairn Island.  It promises to be an exciting adventure as the winds were strong and the waves were high. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

First some history. Pitcairn Island is where the mutineers of the Bounty who did not stay on Tahiti settled (those that remained on Tahiti were later captured and taken to England for trial).  While the movies are entertaining, the real story is fascinating.  Of the 20 or so original mutineers, 10 came, with Fletcher Christian (an interesting character) to Pitcairn Island, along with some Tahitian women and men.  The Island was determined to be a great place of refuge because of its inaccessible shore line and because the charts the British had at the time had it in the wrong place by 150 miles.  Pretty soon after establishing their community, fights broke out, many were killed.  The sole surviving mutineer, John Adams, is buried on the island and lent his name to the town, Adamstown.

• 

• 

• 

Today there are fewer than 50 inhabitants of the island, some, decedents of the Bounty mutineers. When we arrived on the dock after the harrowing trip from the ship, we are met by the sign over the boat house.  It reminded me of the quote from Bern Williams:

“The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate. “

From the dock at Bounty Bay, you make your way up the “Hill of Difficulty” a 100-meter rise in 300 meters, to the Town.  Along the way, you pass the anchor from the Acadia, ship wrecked off Ducie Atoll.  Then past Christian’s Café, where we had lunch. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

You reach the Town square, hot and sweaty, where there were local people selling souvenirs.  These were mostly postcards, t-shirts and some hand carved wooden plates and sculptures of canoes, birds and marine animals, oh – and key chains.  Here you also find the anchor from the Bounty as well as the post office and the museum. 

• 

• 

• 

From the town square we took a walk to see the cemetery.  Many graves of various decedents of the Bounty mutineers as well as others.  Of interest was a recent monument placed by the decedents expressing their feelings toward their ancestors and their deeds. I thought this particularly poignant as I was feeling somewhat unsettled about making heroes of the deserters.

• 

• 

• 

• 

A further walk up the hill took us to the grave of “John Adams”.  He had signed on the ship as “Alexander Smith” but after the Bounty descendants were discovered in 1808, he took the name John Adams. He was taught to read by his fellow mutineer, Ned Young, using Bligh’s bible they had from the Bounty.  When Ned died in 1800, 10 years after they arrived on the island, Alex became the sole surviving European of the original settlers.  His is the only known resting place of the original mutineers of H.M.A.V. Bounty. His wife and their daughter are buried along side him.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

As we walked along the paths on the island, we noticed many beautiful flowers.  Here are some of the flora.  I tried to get some pictures of the birds, but they were too fast for me.

We headed back to the dock at Bounty Bay.  The surf was even higher and rougher than this morning when we came ashore.  The trip back promised to be even more “exciting”.  First, they had to role out the second long boat, which fell on its side in the boat house!  But we did make it back, though I confess to more than a few moments of terror as the boat bobbed and turned on the waves, splashing most of us as we went.

• 

• 

Tomorrow we are on to, Oeno Atoll, the last of the four islands in the Pitcairn group.