-----Original Message-----
From Gordon Talge
I think Pitcarin Island
was remote and mischarted and that is why the British ( or any ship for that
matter ) didn't sight island for years leaving the mutineers to their own
devices.
It certainly was and is remote.
While the Bounty mutineers were
floundering about in mid Pacific, looking for another refuge (their first
choice didn't turn out too well) someone remembered this little speck of land
to the east. They had a position but no reason to put too much store in the
longitude, so sailed along the latitude until it popped up on the horizon. As
you did.
They were left alone for
many years, eventually being visited by an American whaler. Although they had
kept meticulous records their calendar was out by one day, due to failing to
take into account one of the mutineer Bounty's
crossings of the dateline (180 degrees East or West). One of their number at
that time was called Thursday, so was promptly renamed Friday, the origin of
the 'Man Friday' of the Robinson Crusoe story.
Later in the 19th century
Queen Victoria offered them settlement on
Norfolk Island, another small island, also unfortunately without a harbour,
today a self governing part of Australian territory, about halfway between Australia and New Zealand. And there most of them
still are. Some elected to stay on Pitcairn. Their story in the last hundred
odd years is an interesting one, mostly recorded by schoolteachers and the like
who have spent time there.
The locals of this period seemed
to enjoy exceptionally rude good health, being farmers and fishermen, always
outdoors, eating simple healthy food they produced themselves. They would
regularly sail to nearby Henderson
Island. It was a bit of a
holiday excursion, but also to collect timber and fish in the lagoon, a trip of
some days in open whaleboats. These same few timber craft, modeled on the Bounty’s ship’s boats, were also used
for offloading produce and passengers from visiting ships. It was not unknown
to set sail to Tahiti, more or less casually,
when it seemed necessary - they have always had to be self-reliant.
The story of how they
came to be there and the clash between English and Polynesian cultures
resonates even today, as evidenced by an unsavoury court case prosecuted by the
British Government (but held in New Zealand) against most of the adult Pitcairn
men, alleging child fexual abuse over at least the last 50 years. As one of the
elder women said, it was a part of their way of life that nobody used to
question. It is potentially as much a threat to their 200-odd year old culture
as any other that has come along so far.
