Trevor Lummis - Pitcairn Island: Life and Death in Eden

The mutineers turning Bligh and part of his officers and crew adrift. A hand-coloured aquatint after the painting by Robert Dodd, published October 1790.
By permission of the National Maritime Museum

A human sacrifice in a Morae in Otaheite by John Webber. Engraved by W. Woollett.
By permission of the National Maritime Museum

A young woman of Otaheite, dancing by John Webber.
By permission of the National Maritime Museum

Chart of Pitcairn Island by Captain F.W. Beechey, RN, FRS.
By permission of the British Library

Interior of Pitcairn Island by Captain F.W. Beechey. Engraved by Edward Finden. Published by Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, London, 1830.
By permission of the British Library

Interior of Pitcairn by Lieutenant Conway Shipley, RN. Published 1851.
By permission of the National Maritime Museum

In late September 1808 the American ship Topaz was sailing the empty expanses of the South Pacific ocean. She had come from her home port of Boston, Massachusetts down the east coast of the Americas, had rounded Cape Horn, was some halfway between South America and New Zealand and was just entering tropical latitudes when land was sighted. This was a surprise to her master, Captain Folger, for his charts showed no islands in that area. Land was a welcome sight as he was cruising those waters hoping to find new sealing grounds and his ship was short of water: a strange island held the possibility of providing both those items. As the Topaz closed with the island and its form became clearer through his telescope his hopes turned to disappointment. The island appeared fertile enough; but the shore provided scant hope of a safe landing-place, wherever he looked there were precipitous cliffs and rock-bound shores being pounded by heavy surf. As it was too dangerous to approach the shore Folger was tempted to sail on without waste of time, but as night fell he saw lights on the shore. The fact that the island was inhabited meant that it had water and there was a possibility that the inhabitants might be able to supply him and he was naturally curious as to who were these unrecorded natives. He hove-to his ship until next morning.

As the Topaz closed with the island at daylight the surf was still too dangerous to risk landing in a ships boat but, in spite of the danger, a canoe put out from a small bay. The canoe contained two youths dressed in native clothing. Folger was stunned to be addressed in good English, but when he told them where he and his ship were from the two youths had not heard of the United States of America and inquired whether it was in Ireland. After some confused exchanges the following conversation took place as recalled by Folger in a letter to a friend Folger speaks first:

Who are you We are Englishmen Where were you born On that island which you see How are you Englishmen, if you were born on that island, which the English do not own, and never possessed? We are Englishmen because our father was an Englishman Who is your father? With very interesting simplicity they answered Aleck. Who is Aleck? Dont you know Aleck? How should I know Aleck? Well then, did you know Captain Bligh of the Bounty? At this question Folger told me the whole story immediately burst upon his mind, and produced a shock of mingled feelings, surprise, wonder, and pleasure, not to be described.

Captain Folger had found the answer to a mystery which had fascinated the world since HMS Bounty had last been sighted leaving Matavai some earlier.

The mutiny on the Bounty had reverberated around the world ever since it had taken place on 28 April 1789. It was a British cause clbre from the time that the news was received, and was an event soon known throughout Europe and in English-speaking countries and territories overseas: through numerous publications, the cinema and television it has remained a story known throughout the world. Her deposed commander Lieutenant William Bligh won fame by successfully conducting an epic small-boat voyage which took to safety himself and eighteen of his crew whom the mutineers cast adrift with him. The Bounty mutineers were assumed to have returned to Tahiti. No navy could allow mutineers to live unpunished, so once the news was received the Royal Navy sent a ship to find, capture and return them to England and to justice. A number of mutineers were recaptured on Tahiti, but the Bounty, under the command of the mutinys leader, Fletcher Christian, had disappeared from the face of the known world. There might well have been a renewed effort to find the ship and to bring the missing mutineers to justice had not the French Revolution and the ensuing Napoleonic wars given the Admiralty far more pressing concerns. Not that the mutiny or Fletcher Christian were forgotten. The disappearance of the Bounty was spoken of by sailors throughout the world and from time to time there were reports that Fletcher Christian had been seen in this or that foreign port, or on board a Spanish or French ship fighting against the English. But now rumour was at an end. Folger had found their hideaway.

The Bounty was known to have disappeared from view with Fletcher Christian and eight other members of the crew, six Polynesian men, twelve Tahitian women and one babe-in-arms. Their whereabouts had remained unknown for eighteen years when Captain Folger stepped into the canoe and was taken ashore to meet Aleck. Aleck was an able seaman from Wapping, London whose real name was John Adams, but who for reasons known only to himself had signed-on the