PITCAIRN ISLAND

JANUARY 24, 2014

The Pitcairn Islands, officially named the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, form a grop of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The islands ara a British overseas territory (formerly a British colony), the last remaining in the Pacific. Only Pitcairn, the second largest, is inhibited.

 

This little (2 miles across) island has such a history that it was intriguing to visit so close. It has no harbor so our ship stopped close by and most of the 45 inhabitants rowed their biggest boat out to our ship with their wares to sell.  They spent several hours with us.

 

If you know the true story of “Mutiny on the Bounty”, this is the uninhabited island that Fletcher Christian and his eight other Bounty mutineers found after a four month search. On the ship were his stolen six Polynesian men and 12 Polynesian women and a baby of one woman. The island was found 15 January 1790. While Bounty was anchored, livestock and goods were shipped ashore. Then, fearing that if any European vessel sighted the ship, retribution would inevitably follow, the mutineers ran Bounty ashore and, on 23 January 1790, the ship was burned and sunk.  

There have been five movies made about this romantic story: 1916,1932,1935,1962, and 1984.

 

The fertile soil produces a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Fish are plentiful in the seas around Pitcairn.  Almost every day someone will go fishing, whether it is from the rocks, from a longboat or diving with a spear gun. The Pitcairners are involved in creating crafts and curios (made from wood from Henderson Island). They have a school for children through 8^th grade but then they send the children to New Zealand for high school and college. Most do not come back to live. The population at one time was at 233 at its highest but has been on a steady decline. They are getting funds from the UK to get heavy equipment to build a dock so ships could tender cruise people in for tours and hope to increase business opportunities. They are not giving up!

This is the only way onto the island.