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KF5JRV > TODAY 28.04.19 12:30l 71 Lines 3819 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 35362_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Apr 28
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Sent: 190428/1023Z 35362@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
Three weeks into a journey from Tahiti to the West Indies, the HMS
Bounty is seized in a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, the master’s
mate. Captain William Bligh and 18 of his loyal supporters were set
adrift in a small, open boat, and the Bounty set course for Tubuai south
of Tahiti.
In December 1787, the Bounty left England for Tahiti in the South
Pacific, where it was to collect a cargo of breadfruit saplings to
transport to the West Indies. There, the breadfruit would serve as food
for slaves. After a 10-month journey, the Bounty arrived in Tahiti in
October 1788 and remained there for more than five months. On Tahiti,
the crew enjoyed an idyllic life, reveling in the comfortable climate,
lush surroundings, and the famous hospitality of the Tahitians. Fletcher
Christian fell in love with a Tahitian woman named Mauatua.
On April 4, 1789, the Bounty departed Tahiti with its store of
breadfruit saplings. On April 28, near the island of Tonga, Christian
and 25 petty officers and seamen seized the ship. Bligh, who eventually
would fall prey to a total of three mutinies in his career, was an
oppressive commander and insulted those under him. By setting him adrift
in an overcrowded 23-foot-long boat in the middle of the Pacific,
Christian and his conspirators had apparently handed him a death
sentence. By remarkable seamanship, however, Bligh and his men reached
Timor in the East Indies on June 14, 1789, after a voyage of about 3,600
miles. Bligh returned to England and soon sailed again to Tahiti, from
where he successfully transported breadfruit trees to the West Indies.
Meanwhile, Christian and his men attempted to establish themselves on
the island of Tubuai. Unsuccessful in their colonizing effort, the
Bounty sailed north to Tahiti, and 16 crewmen decided to stay there,
despite the risk of capture by British authorities. Christian and eight
others, together with six Tahitian men, a dozen Tahitian women, and a
child, decided to search the South Pacific for a safe haven. In January
1790, the Bounty settled on Pitcairn Island, an isolated and uninhabited
volcanic island more than 1,000 miles east of Tahiti. The mutineers who
remained on Tahiti were captured and taken back to England where three
were hanged. A British ship searched for Christian and the others but
did not find them.
In 1808, an American whaling vessel was drawn to Pitcairn by smoke from
a cooking fire. The Americans discovered a community of children and
women led by John Adams, the sole survivor of the original nine
mutineers. According to Adams, after settling on Pitcairn the colonists
had stripped and burned the Bounty, and internal strife and sickness had
led to the death of Fletcher and all the men but him. In 1825, a British
ship arrived and formally granted Adams amnesty, and he served as
patriarch of the Pitcairn community until his death in 1829.
In 1831, the Pitcairn islanders were resettled on Tahiti, but
unsatisfied with life there they soon returned to their native island.
In 1838, the Pitcairn Islands, which includes three nearby uninhabited
islands, was incorporated into the British Empire. By 1855, Pitcairn’s
population had grown to nearly 200, and the two-square-mile island could
not sustain its residents. In 1856, the islanders were removed to
Norfolk Island, a former penal colony nearly 4,000 miles to the west.
However, less than two years later, 17 of the islanders returned to
Pitcairn, followed by more families in 1864. Today, around 40 people
live on Pitcairn Island, and all but a handful are descendants of the
Bounty mutineers. About a thousand residents of Norfolk Island (half its
population) trace their lineage from Fletcher Christian and the eight
other Englishmen.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.COM
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