For the Captains’ Cook, Bligh and even Vancouver fan, Pitcairn Island has to be on the list of places to see and / or visit. Sitting here in the middle of nowhere, South Pacific, lies this remote and removed island. The short story, Captain Cook is sent down to Papeete, Tahiti to witness the Transit of Venus, on board are Officers, Bligh and Vancouver. Fast forward a bit Bligh is promoted to Captain and is assigned to take the ship, Bounty, down to Tahiti to collect breadfruit to take to the West Indies (helping to feed to slaves, etc). Captain Bligh makes a few mistakes along the way, the first is trying to round Cape Horn as he thinks it is a short cut. He is stuck at the Cape for 3 weeks as storm after storm battle him and the spirit of the crew. He then decides to go the way he was supposed to go, around the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). By the time he gets to Tahiti he misses out on the season to transport any seedlings. The crew become smitten with the Tahitian beauties and again to make a long story short, rebel and take over the ship. Led by the masters mate, Fletcher Christian, they put Captain Bligh into a lifeboat along with many of the Bligh supporting crew and send them adrift. The Bounty returns to Tahiti to pick up the group of Polynesian friends and lovers and sail to anywhere that they will not be found. Pitcairn Island was originally mapped in the wrong location and therefore became the perfect hide out for these mutineers and others. Within a short period of time they burned and sunk the Bounty and made this island their home. Fast forward a few centuries along with our visit to this beautiful remote island. There is still no good landing spot on this island, there is a small breakwater that was built but not good for our tenders, so the locals, yes mostly all descendants of these mutineers now jump into a long boat and make their way to our ship anchored in, Bounty Bay. Quite a sight to see them coming out.
At last count there about 50 islanders over the 9 families living here, 30 of which came out to our ship. They set up a makeshift market on the Lido deck and bring everything from fridge magnets, to tee shirts, golf shirts, wood carvings, wall hangings, postcards with stamps, etc. It is the only port I know where the Port comes to us, lol. With security at the wait letting them all get set, then with a quite hush of “are you ready” can be heard around the deck and then the retaining ribbons are brought down and the buying frenzy begins. I happened to walk by at about 10 minutes before the beginning of all this and saw the fridge magnets that I liked - no one else was at Kevin Young’s stall but me, hmm, maybe I should wait. Kevin is a 7th generation from the original Mutineer Young, Edward Young. We chatted a bit, I asked about pricing, he said “two for $15, 3 for $20 USD. I got out my $15, he finished setting up and places two beautiful hand painted magnets on the top of the hundred or so set to go. I thought, those are mine. The ribbon went down, I grabbed the two and gave him the $15 (think I was the first sale of the frenzy), took a picture as I felt the surge behind me, the lady beside me said, “that was quick”, I said, I have been watching him set up and saw the ones I wanted and we already talked about price, boom, I’m done come on in. Well, I thought I was done, a young Bradley Christian (yes, a dependent from Fletcher Christian), made and sold some beautiful wood trays - had to get one of those (signed). I also just had to get a postcard (and stamp) for dad, sorry but the mail ship will not be arriving and leaving until mid May - so this one is for fun really but if you are a stamp collector, this is a good one to get. Yes, we did purchase a few more things as this history is so amazing and that these people continue to live here in this remote place and carry the names of these men from history.
One of the Christian decedents did a good 45 minute talk on life on the island and how they all work. From power to roads to schools and medical, very interesting They have diesel generated power from 6 am to I believe 10 pm, they tried solar but with the same problems as on Easter Island with the corrosions of the sea it is not economically feasible. They have a school with a teacher and currently have 3 students, K to about grade 8 is taught here and then they go to a boarding school in New Zealand. There is a clinic here and a doctor (on an annual contract from New Zealand), that can manage most things, anything more complicated goes the Papeete (Tahiti) or New Zealand. They manage their infrastructure as a community and I guess as long as everyone gets along this seems to work out fine. Their main and only industry is tourism, they make everything they sell accept the shirts. They are all constantly working and mastering their crafts as there are anywhere from 11 to 18 ships a year that come in and anchor here, so they are always working on their inventory. They had a 4,000 passenger ship in last week, us today and two more next week - they are all kept very busy. Lets see what else, they celebrate the day they burnt the Bounty, January 23rd, by having a big seafood barbecue feast then after the sun goes down they burn a replica of the Bounty - how cool is that. I say that the things to buy here would be the items they actually make here with the resources from the island. I picked up a t shirt, wow, my size (surprised because it was late in the sale), saw that it was made in Bangladesh - designed here but made there), I asked how much and she said $25 USD, I thought, for a $5 buck shirt from Bangladesh, $15 maybe but $25, sorry no can do and I put it back now knowing now why they still had shirts in my size left over. Finally, each vendor keeps their own profits, your booth or stall, your money. There are no taxes here at all, income, property or sales tax. There biggest problem right now is their future, you see they belong to the UK, but a lot of things come through the EU, so this Brexit thing is still up in the air for them. In that they rely so much on New Zealand maybe they should just become a territory of NZ, just saying. This has been on our list for a while and we are so happy that once more we had a great day and a great visit here on Pitcairn Island. For those of you scratching your heads, watch one of the many movies made for the Mutiny on the Bounty.
Sidebar: We noticed our Captain, Hotel Director, Guest Relations Manager, plus a few others jumped into the long boat and took to the island and to view the sunk remains of the Bounty, pretty special. We also noticed that a number of cases of sodas, beer etc were sent over to the long boat upon the return of our valuable crew, coincidence? I think maybe these mutineer dependents perhaps learned something. If you want your crew back its going to cost you, lol. I believe the bridge was also under lock and key today, you know… just in case.
Quote of the day - “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
So you were not allowed to go ashore ? What a Shame !
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