Pitcairn Island—The Island of Isolation
If you want to find Pitcairn Island on a map, search Google Earth and wait for the program to pinpoint the barely visible dot in the middle of the South Pacific. Just because you can’t see any other land on the surface of Google’s orb once you’ve located Pitcairn doesn’t mean Google Earth is malfunctioning. Pitcairn really is that isolated - a volcanic rock under two square miles surrounded by pounding surf in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
Don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of Pitcairn island - not many people have. This storied island isn’t located on any flight routes and getting there is strictly for the determined. The other alternative is to arrive by accident and that possibility seems as remote as the island itself. Its utter isolation is why the descendants of its modern day population sought it out in the first place.
In 1790, a cranky crew in the South Pacific revolted against the notoriously difficult Captain Bligh of the HMS Bounty. Bligh and 18 other crew members were set adrift in an open boat, with one week’s provisions and a few simple navigation instruments. Remarkably, Bligh sailed the small, crowded boat through 3,500 miles of open sea to the Dutch colony of Timor in the East Indies.
Fletcher Christian assumed command of the Bounty. With him were 24 crew members. Some wanted to return to Tahiti and take their chances after the mutiny. Others wanted to find a hiding place where they would escape punishment for tossing Captain Bligh overboard. Fletcher Christian was among the latter group.
Fletcher and his crew were searching in earnest for a new place to call home when he found a map containing a recently charted island outside normal navigation paths. The British had discovered the remote island about 15 years earlier. The name of the place was Pitcairn Island. The mutineers remaining with Christian decided to sail for Pitcairn and make their final settlement there.
After two months at sea, Pitcairn Island was sighted in the telescope. Nine mutineers, six Polynesian men and twelve women settled on Pitcairn Island and peopled the island (the Englishmen had wives or consorts, but it’s unclear if the Polynesians ended up on Pitcairn willingly.) No one had lived on the island in recent times and it was well stocked with breadfruit, coconuts, fish, bird eggs and other food sources. Fresh water was found. The island was difficult to land at, which made it seem all the more suited to the mutineers.
It seemed like paradise had finally been found. But we all know that paradise can quickly turn ugly. A second mutiny of sorts occurred. Despite Fletcher’s efforts at fair treatment, the Polynesians felt otherwise and revolted. The Tahitian women revolted to avenge the death of their English husbands and killed the remaining Polynesian men. Somewhere in between all the revolting, someone thought brewing alcohol would be a good idea. The surviving Englishmen began drinking excessively and making life miserable for the Pitcairn women. Surprisingly, some of the women attempted to leave this magical Eden.
Despite all this decidedly unromantic bloodletting, the population managed to go forth and multiply. However, the gene pool remains shallow to this day. Now, Pitcairn island is home to approximately 50 people descended from the 18th century seamen of the Bounty and their Tahitian lady friends. Outmigration, usually to Pitcairn’s closest neighbour, New Zealand, has thinned the population from a peak of 233 in 1937 to less than 50 today. Some leave Pitcairn of their own free will, but others don’t have much choice in the matter.
In most recent history, the women are still having a hard time with the local men. On September 2004, seven men living on Pitcairn Island (including the Mayor), went on trial in New Zealand facing 55 charges relating to sexual offenses. In October 2004, all but one of the defendants were found guilty.
More than one-quarter of Pitcairn’s labor force had been arrested, putting the economy in a bind since their services were required to load or unload passing ships. The remaining locals rely on fishing, farming and postage stamps. Bartering is an important part of the economy too; maybe that’s what caused all the trouble in the first place…
The sale of postage stamps to collectors is a major source of revenue for Pitcairners, but the stamp issuing policy is very modest. To date, only 425 stamps and Souvenir Sheets have been issued since October 15, 1940; a complete collection can be assembled at a relatively inexpensive cost. The issues are almost all related to the island, its people, history, flora, trees, birds, fish, fruits, and ships.
There is no airport or harbour on Pitcairn, so the mail must be brought out to the waiting ships. Mail, in and out of the island, is a slow, unpredictable, process. When the weather is bad, or a ship chooses not to stop, there can be long intervals before mail is processed. The first step in the long journey of a piece of outgoing mail, after it has been duly weighed and the proper stamp has been affixed, is the hand cancellation of that stamp; as an oddity in philatelic circles, here lies one of the attractions of collecting Pitcairn Islands stamps. Cancelled stamps are often worth more to collectors than unused ones. The sheer remoteness of Pitcairn also remains a draw for stamp collectors the world over.
Communication options on Pitcairn are limited to the community telephone, mail or ham radio on the island. There is no television on Pitcairn - maybe a result of the locals’ strict adherence to the Seventh Day Adventist religion. Without television or outside influence, it’s hard to imagine their conversion unless God spoke through ham radio.
Their conversion was actually less miraculous. In 1890, Seventh Day Adventists raised enough money to send a missionary ship to Pitcairn. The islanders were baptised in rocky pools by the shore. The islanders had to make few changes to accommodate conversion; most were already total abstainers and many were vegetarians (except for occasional meals of goat, which is not forbidden by the Seventh Day Adventists.) Pork is not permitted, but all the pigs had already been slaughtered during the baptisms. The islanders practice the religion to this day.
If you’ve been moved to visit Pitcairn after reading this far, please know that visitors must obtain written permission from the government to visit the island and arrange to stay with native families. But who knows, the government might be likely to grant permission these days in light of the island’s seeming need for new blood. Perhaps you can help deepen the island’s gene pool and finally put Pitcairn on the map.
