Pitcairn History

History

The original settlers of the Pitcairn Islands were Polynesians who appear to have lived on Pitcairn and Henderson for several centuries. However, although archaeologists believe that Polynesians were living on Pitcairn as late as the 15th century, the islands were uninhabited when Pitcairn was discovered by Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in 1606. It was rediscovered by the British on July 3,1767, and named after Midshipman Robert Pitcairn, a fifteen-year old crewmember who was traveling on a voyage commanded by Captain Philip Carteret. Pitcairn was the son of British Revolutionary War Marine Officer John Pitcairn, who was second in command of British forces stationed in Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War. Captain Pitcairn was fatally wounded in one of the most defining battles of the war, the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.

In 1790, the mutineers of HMAV Bounty and their Tahitian companions, some of whom may have been kidnapped from Tahiti, settled on the island and set fire to the Bounty. The wreck is still visible underwater in Bounty Bay. Although the settlers were able to survive by farming and fishing, the initial period of settlement was marked by serious tensions among the settlers. Alcoholism, murder, disease and other ills took the lives of most mutineers and Tahitian men. John Adams and Ned Young turned to the Scriptures using the ship's Bible as their guide for a new and peaceful society. The Pitcairners converted to Christianity. (The Pitcairners would later convert to Adventism after a successful Adventist mission in the 1890s.) When the British found Pitcairn again in 1814, they were impressed with the emerging society and the example of leadership given by Adams. Because of this, it was decided not to arrest him for mutiny.

The island became a British colony in 1838. By the mid 1850s the Pitcairn community was outgrowing the island and its leaders appealed to the British government for assistance. They were offered Norfolk Island and on 3 May, 1856, the entire community of 193 people set sail for Norfolk on board the Morayshire, arriving on 8 June after a miserable five-week trip. But after eighteen months on Norfolk, seventeen of the Pitcairners returned to their home island; five years later another twenty-seven did the same.

Since a population peak of 233 in 1937, the island has been suffering from emigration, primarily to New Zealand, leaving some fifty people living on Pitcairn.

There are allegations of a long history and tradition of sexual abuse of girls as young as 7, which culminated in 2004 in the charging of seven men living on Pitcairn, and another six now living abroad, with sex-related offences, including rape. On October 25 2004, six men were convicted, including Steve Christian, the island's mayor. See Pitcairn rape trial of 2004.