|
 Facts at a Glance
Full country name: Pitcairn Islands
Area: 450 hectares (1111.5 acres)
Population: 48
Capital: Adamstown
People: Polynesian and European
Religion: Seventh Day Adventist
Government: British dependency
Head of State: Queen Elizabeth II
 Environment
Pitcairn is volcanic, with steep cliffs and a rugged coastline, although the volcanoes are long gone. It lies just to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn in the South Pacific, about two thirds of the way as the albatross flies from Australia to South America. Its nearest neighbours are Easter Island and the far-flung south-eastern islands of French Polynesia, the Tuamotu and Gambier groups. The island is only 3km long by 1.5km wide (1.8mi by 0.9mi), an area you can explore easily in a couple of hours. A few outlying islands or atolls - Henderson (which is eight times larger than Pitcairn), Ducie and Oeno - complete the group.
Pitcairn was mostly forested when the Bounty crew and the Polynesians arrived, but that has largely been replaced by fruit trees and gardens now except for a small section on the western tip of the island. Locals have taken some steps toward forest regeneration, with the council establishing a plantation of miro (Thespesia populnea), a species popular for wood carving. The only native mammal is the Polynesian rat, and the best known birds that breed on Pitcairn are the fairy tern and common noddy. A few endemic bird species, including the Henderson chicken, inhabit Henderson.
Pitcairn's climate is sub tropical, with mean monthly temperatures averaging 18°C (64°F) in August (winter), to 24°C (75°F) in February (summer). July and August are the driest months and November the wettest, although the rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year (islanders are used to mud).
 History
Polynesians may have settled Pitcairn as long as 3500 years ago, at least temporarily, and archaeologists believe there was a Polynesian settlement on the island between the 12th and 15th centuries AD. At that time, a lively trade was carried on between Pitcairn, Henderson - which was inhabited as well - and Mangareva, in what is now the Gambier Archipelago of south-eastern French Polynesia. These earlier settlements left burial sites containing human skeletons, petroglyphs, earth ovens, stone adzes and other artefacts, although no one is sure where the original Pitcairners came from. Pitcairn is likely to have been important for its quarry where stone adzes were mined. Despite Pitcairn's diminutive size, its fertile volcanic soils were (and still are) able to support a permanent population. By 1606, when Spanish explorer de Quiros came looking for his own personal El Dorado and found Henderson, both it and presumably Pitcairn were deserted.
Pitcairn's European discovery had to wait until 1767, when Philip Carteret sailed by on HMS Swallow and mischarted it by 300km (186mi). Carteret decided to name it Pitcairn's Island after the man who first spotted it. Meanwhile, HMS Bounty sailed from England in 1787 to collect cuttings from breadfruit trees to take to the West Indies. It was believed (wrongly, as it later turned out) that the breadfruit would make an ideal and cheap food for slaves working the British plantations there. The Bounty stayed in Tahitian waters for five months, during which time (if you've seen any of the five movie versions you'll know) some of the lonely sailors indulged in a little parallel parking with some of the Tahitian princesses, meaning the sailors were none too happy to leave. As you'll know, Mel Gibson (Fletcher Christian) led them in a rebellion against Captain Bligh three weeks after they'd left Tahiti, setting Bligh and 18 crewmen loyal to him out on the open ocean in a longboat and taking the Bounty back to Tahiti. Bligh and his crew eventually made it to Kupang in present day Indonesia.
In January 1790 the mutineers arrived at Pitcairn after a couple of false starts during a four month search for a hideaway far from British naval justice. Led by Christian, the party included eight other mutineers, six Tahitian men, 12 Tahitian women and a child. A few days later the mutineers burned their bridges in Bounty Bay as the good ship Bounty went up in smoke. Despite good intentions to peacefully co-exist, within a couple of years the new Pitcairners embarked on their own Lord of the Flies big adventure as the men started knocking each other off. By 1794 all the Polynesian men and five of the mutineers, including Christian, were dead. Young, Adams, Quintal and McCoy were still giving each other anxious sideways glances.
A few peaceful years followed before McCoy discovered how to produce a killer spirit from the roots of the local ti plant. In 1796, and driving under the influence, he threw himself into the sea with a rock tied around his neck. A few years later Quintal's wife fell to her death while searching for birds' eggs, and shortly after Quintal became so crazed under the drink's influence that Adams and Young defended themselves against him with an axe, draining the gene pool even further. Young died of asthma in 1800, leaving John Adams as the sole male adult survivor. Finding religion, he took the 10 women and 23 children under his wing and began educating them using books taken from the blessed-by-good-fortune ship Bounty.
Adamstown was a neat little settlement of God-fearing Christians when Captain Mayhew Folger of the American sealer Topaz rediscovered Pitcairn, solving the 19 year mystery of what had happened to the Bounty after the mutiny. Ships started to call more frequently and by the time Adams died in 1829 concerns were raised that the island would become overpopulated. In 1831 the British government relocated the islanders to Tahiti, where they were welcomed, but within months 10 of the Pitcairners had died of unfamiliar diseases. By the end of the year the 65 survivors were all back on Pitcairn. The island became a British colony in 1838 but the old overpopulation fears raised themselves again with the rising birth rate. In 1856 the whole population of 194 was moved to Norfolk Island, an uninhabited former Australian prison island off Australia's east coast. Two years later, 16 islanders returned to Pitcairn, just in time to prevent the French annexing it to their Polynesian colony. More families returned in 1864.
Pitcairn's population grew to a peak of 223 just before WWII, but lately depopulation rather than overpopulation has become a major concern, as islanders leave for better opportunities in New Zealand or elsewhere. In 1956 the population was 161, 1961 - 126, 1966 - 96 and in 1976 - 74. Through the 80s and 90s the figure has generally been in the 40s and 50s. Many of the houses are empty or falling down, and lack of opportunities may finally force the population below a viable level. Accessibility has been a big part of the problem. For years after the settlement's discovery sealing ships and passenger ships on the Panama-New Zealand passenger ship route paid regular visits, but modern air travel has reduced island contacts to visiting yachts, cargo ships that can be persuaded to stop and the occasional cruise ship.
 Culture
While the Polynesians who arrived presumably brought the rich culture of Tahiti with them, much of that has died out on Pitcairn. Weaving palm baskets is one skill that has been maintained, and many of the Pitcairn men carve intricate animals and replicas of the Bounty out of local timber.
The language is English, but among themselves Pitcairners speak a slightly slurred version full of local idiom, words and place names that make it almost impossible for outsiders to understand. It includes many Tahitian and 18th century English seafaring words (if they drink too much, all hands (ie everyone) are likely to capsize (fall over), for example). Pitcairners embraced the Seventh Day Adventist Church late last century, which was responsible for the children's education until 1948, when a teacher was finally sent from New Zealand. Alcohol is banned (that ban seems to be slipping) and the islanders are not allowed to eat pork or fish without scales, which means the plentiful crayfish in island waters are used only as bait. Land is held under a system devised by Fletcher Christian and is based on family ownership.
Pitcairners are virtually self sufficient in food, although they do a lively trade with passing ships. They raise goats and poultry for their own consumption, and goats also roam wild on the island. They catch fish around the coast, but there are no commercial fisheries.
 Events
Church on Saturdays is the most regular event on the island, and birthdays are usually good excuses for a get together and celebration. Each year on 23 January the Bounty's demise is celebrated by towing a burning model of the ship across Bounty Bay.
 Facts for the Traveller
Visas: None needed if you make a brief visit from a passing ship. If you want to stay longer you have to apply through the British Consulate General in Auckland.
Health risks: None
Time: GMT/UTC plus 8.5 hours
Weights & measures: Metric (see conversion table)
 Money & Costs
Currency: New Zealand dollar (NZ$)
You would need upwards of about US$65 a week for room and board, (that is if you manage to stay any longer than a few hours). There are no facilities to change money and no specific accommodation for travellers such as hotels or even guest houses, so you have to arrange board with a local family.
 When to Go
July and August are probably the best months to go, but unless you get there in your own yacht, your choice is limited by the timetables of the passenger ships that call in.
 Attractions
Adamstown
Adamstown sits at the top of the appropriately named Hill of Difficulty, perched 120m (394ft) above the sea. Houses are either 'upside' or 'downside' of the main road. The public square is the heart of the island, and buildings around it serve as a courthouse, island magistrate's office, community hall, church, dispensary, library and post office. Among the many reminders of the island's origins are Fletcher Christian's Bounty Bible, kept in a glass case in the church. It was sold in 1839 but returned to the island in 1949. The Bounty's anchor, salvaged by a National Geographic team, stands outside the court house and there's a Bounty cannon further down the road.
Around Pitcairn Island
The anchor from the Acadia, wrecked on Ducie Island, is displayed on the Edge, overlooking Bounty Bay. John Adams' grave is the only one of the mutineers' graves that's been preserved. Fletcher Christian's cave overlooks Adamstown and is where Christian is supposed to have hidden, either to watch for pursuing ships or to save his skin during the settlement's violent early years.
Petroglyphs on the rock face at the bottom of Down Rope are reminders of Pitcairn's pre-Bounty Polynesian inhabitants. The Polynesian stone quarry is at Tautama, 1km (0.6mi) west along the coast. When the mutineers arrived there were apparently stone platforms and images, which they threw into the sea. The road to Down Rope continues on to St Paul's Pool, a beautiful natural pool fed and drained by the sea. Turpin, the island's Galapagos tortoise, is the survivor of a pair left here by a visiting yacht early in the 20th century.
Off the Beaten Track
Henderson Island
Henderson Island is the largest of the four islands in the Pitcairn group. It is inhospitable to humans but bird watchers are likely to get a big kick out of a short trip. The island was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 owing to its rare bird life and because its phosphate deposits have never been mined (a real oddity during a phosphate-hungry century). It lies 168km (104mi) north-east of Pitcairn, and is nearly eight times larger than it. Pushed up by three undersea volcanoes - Adams, Young and Bounty - two thirds of Henderson's coast has a new coral reef. Its 15m (49ft) high cliffs are the ancient coral reef, and the fossilised corals that the island is composed of bake under the sun and make climbing difficult as they're sharp, hot and crumbly underfoot. The interior is covered by dense thickets of brush, but since Pitcairn has largely been cleared of its miro trees, islanders make infrequent trips to Henderson to harvest the remote stands still growing there.
The only land mammals on the island are Polynesian rats, but Henderson has four endemic land birds: the flightless Henderson rail (a type of wading bird, referred to as the Henderson chicken), the striking Stephen's lorikeet, the Henderson fruit dove and the Henderson warbler. Nine seabirds breed on the island and six other species have been seen there from time to time, and green sea turtles drop by occasionally to lay eggs. During some tides there is a freshwater spring in a cave at the north of the island. Shipwreck survivors last century found human skeletons in the cave. You can reach Henderson when Pitcairners visit, or via passenger or cargo ship.
Oeno Island
Captain Henderson, busy naming Henderson Island after himself, came across Oeno Island in 1819, but American whalers named it five years later. Two narrow passages through its reef open into the central lagoon, and the outer reef is about 4km (2.5mi) across. Inside the reef are one larger palm-covered island nearly 3km long by 1km wide (1.8mi by 0.6mi) on the western side and a tiny islet or sandbank nearby. Pitcairners occasionally visit to collect pandanus leaves to weave into bags and for a little beach lazing. Oeno has hosted its fair share of shipwrecks over the years, including one that had unfortunate results for Pitcairners. In 1893 the Bowden was wrecked on the island and the captain and crew sailed to Pitcairn in the ship's boat. During salvage operations one of the Pitcairners contracted typhoid fever, and back home the infection spread and killed 13 people. You can only reach Oeno when the Pitcairners make one of their visits, or via a passing passenger or cargo ship or yacht.
Ducie Island
A certain Captain Edwards was out looking for the Bounty mutineers in 1791, and he came across Ducie, 477km (291mi) east of Pitcairn. Fortunately for the mutineers Edwards didn't reach Pitcairn, leaving them a relatively free hand to pole-axe each other. Edwards named the island after his patron, Lord Ducie. The island is a classic coral atoll with one larger and three smaller islets around a lagoon. The main island, Acadia, is home to lizards, tens of thousands of seabirds including masked boobies, petrels, fairy terns, tropic birds and frigate birds, and the ubiquitous Polynesian rat. There are no palm trees and the vegetation is limited to two hardy species of shrub. Ducie's seen a few wrecks as well, such as the Acadia in 1881, whose crew made a tough 13 day voyage to Pitcairn in the ship's boat. A marked trail wanders across the island to the side with the lagoon. Scientific papers have been written about what washes up on Ducie - a huge variety of flotsam including countless glass bottles, plastic debris and hundreds of fishing net floats. Pitcairners visit Ducie irregularly, and you may be able to go with them, or via a yacht or passing passenger or cargo ship.
 Activities
You can walk across the island in about half an hour. Although the off shore swimming is not safe, a tidal pool, known as St Paul's Pool, is a favourite swimming place despite a perilous descent to get there. The fishing around the island is excellent.
 Getting There & Away
Mangareva in French Polynesia is probably the best place to try your luck to pick up passage on a passing yacht. Passenger ship is the only other way to get there. Two passenger ships visit infrequently, but landings on Pitcairn are notoriously difficult. If you're intending to visit, be warned that it's not unknown to travel to the island and then be unable to set foot on land because of rough seas.
 Getting Around
Tin, Tub and Moss are three longboats used for transport between Bounty Bay and boats anchored offshore, or the occasional trip to Oeno and Henderson. Three and four-wheeled fat-tyred motorcycles, or ATVs, are the usual means of transport around the island. The roughly 6km (3.7mi) of dirt roads turn into famously sticky mud when it rains.
 Recommended Reading
- A Guide to Pitcairn is the official government publication about the islands, most recently updated in 1990 and available, including airmail postage, for NZ$12.50 (Australia), from the Pitcairn Island Administration, c/o British Consulate General, Private Box 105 696, Auckland, New Zealand.
- Dea Birkett's Serpent in Paradise is an account of the author's three-month stay on Pitcairn during 1991.
- The Pitcairn Miscellany is the island's monthly newsletter, and has an international readership.
 On-line Info
|
|
