Pitcairn Island

January 25, 2025

Today we met up with the people from Pitcairn. Pitcairn, mostly known from the mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Numerous books have been written and movies have been made about this event.

In 1789 Fletcher Adams took control of the HMS Bounty and burned the ship on the shores of the Island. The mutineers kept living on the island till most of them were murdered. The last mutineer John Adams built a life for him self on the Island, till he passed away at age 61 in 1829.

After watching the sunrise on the back deck, we were waiting for the arrival of the people from the Island to come on board. Just before 8:00 AM they pulled alongside the ship with their long boat. They offloaded all their goods  onto the Cruise ship to be available for sale later at the pool deck. The items for sale were local honey, wood carvings and T-shirts etc. Postcards were also available for sale. There was also an opportunity to have your passport stamped.

At 10:30 the mayor was giving a speech on the mainstage and showed us slides of today’s life on the Island. There are 43 people living on the island as of today. From the 43 inhabitants, 8 are descendents of the Bounty Muteneers. After answering a variety of questions from the crowd, the longboat departed around 11:00 or shortly thereafter. Music was played and bounty cocktails were served when the islanders returned to the island. Before they left our ship, there was an exchange of fresh fish and fruit for beef, flour sugar wine and whiskey from the ship.

That evening we were treated to a fantastic meal of the fresh Tuna, Red Snapper and Coral Trout from the food exchange.

Cheers

Cor and Carol