Cruising Pitcairn Island – in the Middle of Nowhere

Pitcairn Island

DAY 19 – I’d never heard of Pitcairn Island…have you?  Our ship’s captain had pre-arranged this surprise visit to this island on January 23rd for all of us, and we were captivated by this unique island with quite an impressive history!

This small island is out in the middle of the southern Pacific Ocean, more than 2,000 miles from Easter Island, New Zealand, and Tahiti in the middle of nowhere… you would miss it if you blinked, especially if you were an early British sailing explorer in the 1700’s.   A young 15-year old British Midshipman named Robert Pitcairn was the first to sight it.

What makes it unique is that this is the island where the mutineers of the Mutiny on the Bounty ended up from their sailing ship lore and they have been the topic of many books and movies by that name.   When these men arrived, accompanied by their Polynesian women companions, the island was uninhabited.   After they established this island as their new home, they burned the Bounty ship and sunk it in the harbor…the wreck is still visible underwater in what has now been named Bounty Bay.

This idyllic palm tree-covered island is only several miles wide and is 17 miles long.  Today the island has 45  inhabitants, and nine families, all descendants of the original British mutineers.   They fish, farm, and have a self-sustaining schedule that gives each person on the island a specific job to do for their community 3 days a week for 2-3 hours a day…the rest of the time they spend on their own dwellings and farmland.   (They have Internet, satellite TV and cell phones!)

The island is still a British protectorate, with governmental ties to New Zealand, and it is the least populated jurisdiction in the entire world.  The family names are eighth generation descendents of those famed mutineers such as Christian, Brown, Young, and others.

The shores of this island are too rough with volcanic rock for most boats for docking, so approximately 25 of the 45 islanders came out on one of their two large wooden longboats and, at our captain’s invitation, they boarded our ship to sell their handmade carvings, baskets, black pearls, and other items.  They left with gifts from our ship, including big quantities of beef, chicken, sodas, wine, beer, and champagne.  We arrived at Pitcairn Island on their annual celebration of “Bounty Day” January 23rd, 221 years ago…sort of their 4th of July.

Here are just a few photos of this special island and its inhabitants, who, by the way, looked like typical American tourists wearing shorts, t-shirts and sandals…they just have a very different lifestyle!

This is Bounty Bay, with crashing waves at the shoreline of Pitcairn Island, and you can catch a glimpse of the buildings of this community on the far right of this photo.

Here are the descendents of the Mutiny on the Bounty crew and their families in the longboat as they approached our cruise ship with their bags and boxes of souvenirs and items from their island on board with them. 

Our fellow Holland America Amsterdam passengers flocked to the tables set up on our ship’s deck for the Pitcairn Islanders to display their wares and to secure autographs on special Pitcairn Islands stamps and their handcrafted items.  Larry and I have autographs from the descendants of the Christian family, who was the original mutineer that lead the Mutiny on the Bounty.