22 May 2022: Hope you all are enjoying a taste of spring/summer (in some places) and getting out on the water a possible. We hope to be out this coming week - in time for Memorial Day here in the states.
The following is post fairly timely, given that the event occurred on April 28th, albeit in 1789. And, while it is not, in itself, strictly maritime, it stems from a maritime event. Everyone knows the story (or should!) of the Mutiny on the Bounty, where Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian took command of HMAV Bounty from Lieutenant William Bligh and with 9 crewmen (the other 19 stayed in Tahiti) and sailed off to find a remote location where the Royal Navy would be unable to find them. Bligh, along with 18 followers was put in the longboat and completed one of the most famous open ocean feats of navigation, seamanship, and survival ever recorded. (And for the record, Bligh was not the tyrant he was depicted as in history. A great seaman but an inept administrator and leader, who was given a ship pretty much doomed to failure from the start.)
Christian and his 9 English crew along with a bunch of Tahitian islands ultimately found a mis-charted Pitcairn Island and took up residence. Christian stripped and burned Bounty to preclude any change of heart. Here is a modern look at Pitcairn today:
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The story seems quite implausible. In 1789, several sailors led by Fletcher
Christian seized control of the HMS Bounty, then set Capt. William
Bligh and his supporters adrift in the South Pacific sea. (The story was
told in the movies "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "The
Bounty.") Fearing prosecution if they settled in a local community, the
British mutineers spent several months scoping out remote locales, picking up
19 Tahitian
companions along the way. Eventually, the group decided to make their new
home on a deserted volcanic island
they'd discovered some 1,350 miles (2,170 kilometers) southeast of Tahiti.
Today, against all odds, their descendants still live on that same subtropical
island, Pitcairn.
Pitcairn is part of the four Pitcairn Islands, a British Overseas Territory
considered one of the world's most remote inhabited islands. The other islands
in the group, all uninhabited, are Ducie, Henderson and Oeno. Pitcairn is small
— just 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) long and 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide. It's
also rugged, with steep cliffs and no easy way for boats to dock. In fact,
visiting ships still drop anchor several hundred yards from Bounty Bay, then
are met by residents steering longboats.
Despite being settled for more than 200 years, Pitcairn's
population hasn't changed much. While it reached a peak of
233 in 1937, today the island is home to just 50 or so residents, not many
more than when the mutineers first arrived.
With limited acreage and few
residents, amenities on the island are minimal. There's a general store, health
clinic, post office, museum, library, treasury and tourism center, plus Pulau School, which
educates kids through primary school. (Currently, it has just three students.)
After that, children typically receive their higher education at boarding
school in New Zealand.
Since there's no airport on the
island, residents are linked to the outside world mainly via a passenger/cargo
ship, the MV
Silver Supporter, that travels between French Polynesia and Pitcairn on a
limited basis. The trip requires spending at least two nights at sea and there
are just 12 visitor berths. The ship comes about once a month.
Interestingly, most native
Pitkerners are Seventh-Day
Adventists. Originally followers of the Church of England, the mutineers'
religion, the group was converted in 1887 by an Adventist missionary and the
only church on the island is a Seventh-day Adventist church.
How
Pitkerners Make a Living
In the early days, the settlers on
Pitcairn were self-sufficient, growing crops, constructing homes and crafting
clothing. After American whalers discovered the island in 1808, ships began
regularly stopping in, including English vessels that brought over books and
various supplies. In
1898, Britain assumed control of the island and began providing additional
assistance.
By 1937, after searching for ways the island could become more
self-sufficient, the British government landed on the idea of postage
stamps. At that time, the island had no post office and had been using New
Zealand stamps. Three years later, in 1940, the Pitcairn Islands opened its
first post office. Its initial set of stamps were an immediate hit, quickly
becoming popular with philatelists around the globe. Soon stamps were the
island's largest source of revenue. However, revenue declined at the end of the
20th century with the general decline in letter writing and stamp collecting.
Today, while stamps are still available, the Pitkerners power their
nano-economy by selling a well-regarded island honey, known for its rich,
fruity flavor, as well as handmade
crafts such as wood carvings, jewelry, clothing, soap and stationery. Its
main private revenue generator, and one to which it is currently devoting much
effort, is tourism.
In 2015, the British government established a marine reserve around the
islands. At 324,000 square miles (834,000 square kilometers), it's the largest
in the world. A few years later, in a bid to foster astro-tourism, Pitcairn
applied to be named an International
Dark Sky Sanctuary. It received this designation from the International
Dark Sky Association in 2019, the only island group in the world to carry it.
Pitcairn is also marketing itself to adventure travelers in search of unique,
hard-to-access destinations and to cruise ship travelers.
Visitors can sign up to go whale-watching
or fishing on one of the island's famous longboats. You can check out the
grave of John Adams, one of the original mutineers, then swim in a sea-carved
tidal pool. There's a guided tour down a 700-foot (231-meter) cliff, which
features ancient Polynesian petroglyphs at the bottom, evidence of earlier
inhabitants. And, if you're a certified scuba diver, you can explore the ruins
of the HMS Bounty, which the mutineers sank after arriving to avoid being
discovered by the British. (Wisely, they did first strip it of all useful
items.) You can also simply wander around the island to take in the incredible
views. Everything is well signed, and maps are available.
If Pitcairn's marketing efforts are
successful, there may be one potential problem: lodging. There are no hotels or
resorts on Pitcairn Island, although the tourism department helps arrange
accommodations with local families. There is also a smattering of private homes
and units for rent.
Searching
for New Residents
Living on a remote tropical island
may sound very enticing. But as we said earlier, Pitcairn's population has been
decreasing since the end of World War II, with scores of young people opting to
live elsewhere. Immigration, Pitkerners know, is key to their future.
To encourage new residents, the
island is working to make immigration less onerous. It's now easier to obtain
land for a home, for example, as well as subsidized medical treatment. Same-sex
marriages are welcome. Yet despite these changes, the government warns you
shouldn't move here on a whim. For life on such a remote island can be
challenging, both physically and mentally.
Since there are so few people and so
little contact with the outside world, islanders are expected to be able to
perform a variety of tasks and pitch in as necessary. And while internet and
cell service are available, the speeds and service quality aren't on par with
what you'll find in developed and less insolated countries. There is only one
television channel, too, although they're working on increasing coverage. As
far as jobs, there may be a limited number of government jobs available, but
many people support themselves through selling items to tourists or hosting
them in their homes.
The government website
warns that life on Pitcairn island is not for everyone. "It is not a
place to get rich. The island's isolation and small size at times make life on
Pitcairn physically demanding and emotionally challenging."
Still, the website says, life there is diverse, both quiet and vibrant,
and certainly never dull — probably the same conditions experienced by Fletcher
Christian and crew more than 200 years earlier.
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So, friends, if you want to disappear or drop out from society, here's the spot to do it! But as it mentions in the post, don't do it on a whim! Sounds pretty bleak
Until next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
