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Pitcairn Island certainly was remote and miss-positioned at the
time of the Bounty incident, but it appears to have been far from
unknown in the context of these events. The mutiny in the
Bounty took place on April 18, 1789; the mutineers dallied a bit
and did not land on Pitcarin until early 1790, and Bligh returned to
England on March 14, 1790, to a hero's welcome - well, initially
at least; the mutineers were discovered on Pitcairn Island in about
1808, by the Ship Topaz, out of Boston - apparently looking for
seals on what her crew thought to be a disserted island.

In the "Naval Gazetteer or Seaman's Complete Guide", by
The Rev. John Malham, 1795 London edition, it is noted that ...
"Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific Ocean is in lat. 25 deg. 2 min. S,
and long. 133 deg. 21 min. W ..."; it further gives a short
description of the island, and concludes with the statements
that ..."it has some mountains of considerable size that may be
seen 15 leagues off to the SE" ..., and that ... "the variation off
this island in the year 1767 was only a deg. 46 min. E." ......
Realistically, it may be inferred from these statements that Pitcairn
had been know of since 1767, or perhaps even earlier, although
no indicators of a landing can be deduced. It is certainly possible
that Fletcher Christian knew of this island and/or that information
with respect thereto was readily available aboard the Bounty -
the chance that local knowledge with respect to it's general
location may well have been acquired in Hawaii is certainly also
a valid consideration. Given the rather large error in the reported
longitude, a search along the recorded latitude would, of course,
in any event have been necessary. It also remains to be explained
why Pandora in her search for the mutineers did not think to look
for Pitcairn and bring the story to a rather quick ending.
Knowledge of Pitcairn's true position, subsequent to 1808, improved
rapidly - Norie's 1839 edition gives it as 24-04 S. & Long 130-09-30 W;
and Bowditch 1958 edition as 25-04 S. & 130-05 W.

For those interested in Pitcairn generally, Irving Johnson, in his
voyages during the 1930s, visited the island regularly, and had a
number of write-ups in the National Geographic magazine of that
era, from which much contemporaneous information can be
obtained in archive.

I don't know that John Malham's work has been previously
referenced on this site. His 1795, two volume Gazetteer claims
to be ..."a full and accurate account, alphabetically arranged,
of the several coasts of all the countries and islands in the
known world: shewing their Latitude, Longitude, Soundings,
and Stations for Anchorage, ...", etc., is a valuable guide to
knowledge of the relevant era. He also lays claim to being the
author of ..."Navigation made easy and familiar, and other
works on naval affairs" ...I am unfamiliar with anything but his
Gazetteer, and wonder if any member of this List can provide further.

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 08:46:01 -0500 "Sellar, William E."
 writes:
> I'm mostly a lurker on this list, but I learn a lot from you all.  I
> have read some about Polynesian navigation.  Is it possible that the
> Polynesians that the mutineers took with them knew of the existence
> of
> Pitcairn and directed the Bounty there?  I have no evidence of this,
> just a speculation.
>
> Bill Sellar
>

   

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