Pitcairn Islands: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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In 1790, nine of the mutineers from the British merchant ship ''HMS Bounty'', along with the native Tahitian men and women who were with them (six men, 11 women, and a baby girl), settled on Pitcairn Island and set fire to the ''Bounty''. The inhabitants of the island were well aware of the ''Bounty''{{'}}s location, which is still visible underwater in [[Bounty Bay]], but the wreckage gained significant attention in 1957 when documented by ''[[National Geographic Society|National Geographic]]'' explorer [[Luis Marden]]. Although the settlers survived by farming and fishing, the initial period of settlement was marked by serious tensions among them. [[Alcoholism]], [[murder]], disease and other ills took the lives of most mutineers and Tahitian men. [[John Adams (mutineer)|John Adams]] and [[Ned Young]] turned to the [[Religious text|scriptures]], using the ship's [[Bounty Bible|Bible]] as their guide for a new and peaceful society. Young eventually died of an [[asthma]]tic infection.

Ducie Island was rediscovered in 1791 by Royal Navy captain [[Edward Edwards (Royal Navy officer)|Edward Edwards]] aboard {{HMS|Pandora|1779|6}}, while searching for the ''Bounty'' mutineers. He named it after [[Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie]], also a captain in the Royal Navy.

The Pitcairn islanders reported it was not until 27 December 1795 that the first ship since the ''Bounty'' was seen from the island, but it did not approach the land and they could not make out the nationality. A second ship appeared in 1801, but made no attempt to communicate with them. A third came sufficiently near to see their house, but did not try to send a boat on shore. Finally, the American sealing ship ''Topaz'', under [[Mayhew Folger]], became the first to visit the island, when the crew spent ten hours on Pitcairn in February 1808.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ph5EAQAAMAAJ&dq=Mayhew+Folger++son&pg=PA34| title = An transcription of Floger Log entry Concerning the Bounty and Pitcairn Island pp.36-40| last1 = Young| first1 = Rosalind Amelia| year = 1894}}</ref> Whalers subsequently became regular visitors to the island. The last recorded whaler to visit was the ''[[James Arnold (ship)|James Arnold]]'' in 1888.<ref>Langdon, Robert (1984), ''Where the whalers went: an index to the Pacific ports and islands visited by American whalers (and some other ships) in the 19th century'', Canberra, Pacific Manuscripst Bureau, p.207. {{ISBN|086784471X}}</ref>