Pitcairn Islands

Polynesians lived on Pitcairn centuries ago but had gone by the time Europeans arrived. A British ship sighted it in 1767 and named it for the midshipman who spotted it; it was mischarted by three degrees, which later helped hide those who settled there. In 1789 the crew of HMS Bounty mutinied against Lieutenant William Bligh in Tahitian waters. Nine mutineers, with a dozen Tahitian women and six Tahitian men, settled Pitcairn in 1790 and burned the Bounty in the bay.

The colony descended into violence and disease, and by 1800 only one mutineer, John Adams, survived, with the women and children. The community turned devoutly Christian and has been Seventh-day Adventist since an 1886 conversion. The outside world "rediscovered" Pitcairn in 1808. The population was briefly resettled to Norfolk Island in 1856, though some families returned. Pitcairn became a British territory, administered latterly through the British High Commissioner in Wellington, New Zealand.

The population peaked at around 230 in the 1930s and has declined ever since. A series of sexual-abuse trials in 2004 convicted several men, including the mayor, and left deep scars on the tiny community. Today the island offers land and support to would-be migrants to try to arrest the decline, with limited success.

Around 35 to 40 people live on Pitcairn; the territory's other three islands — Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno — are uninhabited. English and Pitkern, a creole of eighteenth-century English and Tahitian, are both spoken. Seventh-day Adventism shapes life, with a Saturday sabbath and dietary traditions that have relaxed over time (a licence now permits alcohol sales). A handful of surnames — Christian, Warren, Young, Brown — cover most of the island, and everyone holds one public role or several.

"Bounty Day" on 23 January re-enacts the burning of the ship. Pitcairn honey, from unusually docile bees, is prized and exported, and carvings in miro wood and woven baskets are made for visitors and for mail order.

The population lives at Adamstown, the only settlement, on the slopes above Bounty Bay, the island's one sheltered landing. There is no airstrip and no safe harbour; boats are launched from a boathouse and the longboat meets ships offshore. The economy is UK budget support plus the sale of honey, stamps, coins, and ".pn" internet domains, and fees from the few visitors.

Power comes from a diesel station with a growing solar share. There is a school, often with a single-figure roll, a clinic with a contracted doctor, a shop open a few hours a week, a church, and a museum. Satellite broadband is limited, and quad bikes are the main way to get around the steep tracks.

Home gardens and orchards provide breadfruit, bananas, taro, sugarcane, citrus, and mango; fish and lobster come from the surrounding sea, and there are goats and chickens. A resupply of frozen and packaged goods arrives with the ship from Mangareva. Pitkern staples include pilhi, a baked pudding of grated banana, pumpkin, or taro; fried fish; and hula, a fish-and-vegetable dish. Pitcairn honey is the island's signature product.

The Bounty story is the draw: the ship's anchor and a cannon on display in Adamstown, the Pitcairn Museum, John Adams's grave, and the dive on the Bounty wreck site in the bay. "Down Rope", the island's only beach — small and red-sanded — has Polynesian petroglyphs above it, and "Christian's Cave" is the lookout the mutineers' leader is said to have used. Walking tracks lead to the island's high point and around the cliffs, and the birdlife is abundant.

Sea conditions permitting, a boat trip runs to uninhabited Henderson Island, a raised-coral UNESCO World Heritage Site with four endemic bird species — and, despite its extreme isolation, one of the most plastic-strewn beaches on Earth.