Norfolk Island - where convicts, Cook, Captain Bligh and BOUNTY left an indelible mark on its history

Norfolk Island is a tiny old volcanic outcrop in the South Pacific. Apart from being isolated, it is steeped in history – both heroic and brutally inhumane.

On his voyage of discovery aboard RESOLUTION, Captain James Cook stepped ashore briefly on this section of the coast of the small island (6 x 8 km). The year was 1774.

Though the sheer cliffs and inhospitable rocky shore made further investigation impossible, Cook named the island NORFOLK. He saw value in the natural vegetation - the tall timbers (now called Norfolk Island pines) for shipbuilding and the flax-like plants for sail making.

The Island is a natural paradise and, today, is World Heritage listed with the best examples of Georgian architecture in the Southern hemisphere. It’s a place where the cattle graze the long paddock and have right of way on the roads.

 

Unfortunately, Norfolk Island has no natural harbour and the transport ships which arrive once a month are off–loaded in the old-fashioned manner by lighters (longboats/whaleboats).

Its museums reflect a history of shipwrecks (HMS SIRIUS) and settlement and events from N.I.’s early visitations by Polynesians around 700 years before Captain Cook ‘discovered’ it and gave the island its name; to the eras of the early colonial settlements and its dark convict stain; to the arrival of the descendants of the ‘BOUNTY’ mutineers from Pitcairn Island in the mid-1800s. 

Despite this bronze memorial standing in the square, the BOUNTY itself never came to Norfolk Island After the mutiny against Captain Bligh, the ship was sailed to Pitcairn Island by Fletcher Christian and his ‘crew’ where it was fired and sunk. In the years that followed, the mutineers and their Tahitian women spawned a unique population and it was their descendants who landed on Norfolk Island in 1856. 
The 'Pitcairners' consisted of 40 men, 47 women, 54 boys and 53 girls, in all, 194 people whose names appear beneath this monument. They were to become the ‘torch bearers for the Norfolk Island heritage’.  

Today’s small population (less than 2000) is made up of many direct descendants of Fletcher Christian, Quintal, Nobbs, Adams and McCoy. Their names are engraved on the gravestones in the cemetery.

 
I have just spent a week on Norfolk Island and would thoroughly recommend a visit.

The following posts have more details and pics.

What really happened to the BOUNTY Mutineers on Pitcairn

HMS Bounty - replica

While Bligh’s story has been well documented and, in some opinions whitewashed, so has the life of Fletcher Christian who, with his cohorts and a bunch of Tahitian men and a dozen revolutionary Ma'ohi women sailed with Christian on BOUNTY and settled on Pitcairn Island.

But after that, what really happened to the BOUNTY survivors? What really happened to the ship itself? Who set fire to it? 

Sinking of the Bounty replica

And how did the mutineers die for they did not magically disappear from Pitcairn Island?

What secrets were held by the women? 

What bloodthirsty brutal acts they were subjected to and, later what brutality were perpetrated by them?

‘Mrs Christian – BOUNTY Mutineer’ by Glynn Christian is an outstanding book for its disturbing revelations about the mystery surrounding the fate of HMS BOUNTY and for the truths and poignant story of the BOUNTY mutineers, which in so many cases has been glossed over.

The true story, penned by Glynn Christian (descendant of Fletcher and Mauatua, is a lengthy read and I found the first part, about the time on Tahiti and the islands, including the raw sex scenes, less engaging. But once the party landed on Pitcairn the story was totally engrossing.

Then, from the time an American ship called at Pitcairn (1808) and discovered this unusual group of mainly half-cast individuals along with one white man, the story takes an about face. Transported back to Tahiti by well-meaning missionaries, many of the Pitcairn islanders died of modern diseases and after less then half a year, the survivors begged to be shipped back to Pitcairn.

In 1856, the descendants of those people were transferred to Norfolk Island, where they settled and still live today. Names, like Christian, Quintall, Nobbs, Young and Adams are engraved on dozens of gravestones in the cemetery there.

Grave of wife of a descendant of Fletcher Christian

Graves on Norfolk Island - many bearing the names of the descendants of the mutineers

   Mauatua (Mrs Christian) was a tall, young and beautiful young south sea islander when the story began. She was also brave, intelligent and a born leader. She eventually died on Pitcairn aged in her 80s – bent and toothless. What she achieved for her people was remarkable.

'Mrs Christian' is a mind-blowing, eye-opener to truths that were held secret for decades. It is a long book, of almost 600 pages, but if you enjoy history and seek to unravel the truth, I thoroughly recommend it.

Bounty replica (from Wikipedia)

As a post script to this blog entry, I have recently acquired a copy of THE PITCAIRNERS by Robert B. Nicholson (1965).

I believe this will shed further light on the story and substantiate much of what I have written here.

Pics: courtesy of Wikipedia.