Pitcairn Islands
Pitcairn Islands
(official name: Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands) is a Pacific
British Overseas Territory. Only one of these four islands is inhabited: the
Pitcairn Island and the entire population lives in Adamstown, the capital.
Demographically, the Pitcairn Islands are the smallest ‘nation’ (national
jurisdiction to be more specific, listed on the United Nation list of
Non-Self-Governing Territories) on the earth, with only 56 inhabitants (2014) –
including several temporary residents, e. g. the Commissioner appointed by the
Governor, who (being in the same time the British High Commissioner to New
Zealand) is based in Auckland; so, there are circa 49 Pitkerners on the Pitkern
Ailen.
A brief history
The capital – the one and only
settlement in the territory – is named after John Smith (d. 1829), the virtual creator of the Pitcairn society. Smith was one of the Bounty
mutineers – a group of British sailors who – leaded by Acting Lieutenant
Fletcher Christian (d. 1793) –
seized control on the Royal Navy vessel HMS [His, or Her, Majesty’s Ship] Bounty
in 1789. They left their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh (d. 1817), with
his loyalists on the ship’s launch on the open sea. Later the Captain became
the fourth governor of the Colony of New South Wales and faced so-called Rum
Rebellion – when, being accused of dictatorial rule and named ‘Kaligula’
by the residents, was overthrown in military coup d’état (a thing very unusual in the Anglo-Saxon world) and
thrown in prison by the rebels.
HMS Bounty was a small merchant vessel sent to Tahiti by the Royal Navy
in a botanical mission; it was supposed to acquire breadfruit plants and to transport
them to the West Indies. The causes of the mutiny are shrouded in mystery, even
more because of a long-term friendship between Christian and Bligh; the latter,
when was about to have been left on the ship’s launch shouted to the first one ‘you
have dandled my children upon your knee’. There are generally mentioned the
explanations: allegedly Lieutenant Bligh was a cruel tyrant or the mutineers
were corrupted by 5-month idyllic life in Tahiti, which they didn’t want to
give up; or both. The first hypothesis can be supported by the later events in
Bligh’s career, the second one – by irrational behavior of the sailors: part of
them remained on Tahiti being probably aware that they can be easily found
there by the Royal Navy. Those who finally sailed to an unknown uninhabited island,
later know by the name of Pitcairn, had kidnapped before, resorting to a ruse, several
Tahitians (both women and men) and after reaching the island, have burned the
ship in a bay named now as the Bounty bay.
(to be continued)
