Pitcairn Islands in United Kingdom[Pacific Ocean]

Pitcairn Island, Pacific Ocean©unsplash

 

HMS 바운티호의 반란과 관련이 있는 것으로 유명한 핏케언 섬은 세계에서 가장 고립된 사람이 거주하는 섬 중 하나입니다.

가장 가까운 대륙에서 약 5,000km 떨어져 있으며, 인구는 약 50명 정도입니다.

 

섬은 보트로만 접근할 수 있으므로 방문객은 여행을 신중하게 계획해야 합니다.

 

핏케언(Pitcairn)은 깨끗한 해변, 수정처럼 맑은 바다, 그리고 모험을 좋아하는 여행자를 끌어들이는 풍부한 역사를 제공합니다.

현지인들은 환대하기로 유명하며 방문객들은 하이킹, 스노클링, 섬의 유적지 탐험과 같은 활동에 참여할 수 있습니다.

섬의 역사는 반란과 깊게 얽혀 있으며 방문객들은 이 매혹적인 과거의 유물과 이야기를 탐험할 수 있습니다.

핏케언 섬의 고립은 신비로움을 더해 세상 끝자락에서의 삶을 경험하고 싶은 사람들을 끌어들입니다.

 

 

Pitcairn Islands

Pitkern Ailen (Pitcairn-Norfolk)

British Overseas Territory

Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands

Flag

Coat of arms

 

 

 

The Pitcairn Islands (/ˈpɪtkɛərn/ PIT-kairn; Pitkern: Pitkern Ailen), officially Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands,  are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four islands—Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno—are scattered across several hundred kilometres of ocean and have a combined land area of about 47 square kilometres (18 square miles).

 

Henderson Island accounts for 86% of the land area, but only Pitcairn Island is inhabited. The inhabited islands nearest to the Pitcairn Islands are Mangareva (of French Polynesia), 688 km to the west, as well as Easter Island, 1,929 km to the east.

 

The Pitcairn Islanders are descended mostly from nine British HMS Bounty mutineers and twelve Tahitian women. In 2023, the territory had 35 permanent inhabitants.

 

Pitcairn Islands_in_United Kingdom

Map showing location of the Pitcairn Islands (circled at the lower-right and magnified in an inset)

 

History

Polynesian settlement

Various forms of evidence show the earliest settlers of the Pitcairn Islands were Polynesians who occupied Pitcairn and Henderson for several centuries until the islands were abandoned: Henderson most likely before the 16th century and Pitcairn in the 17th or early 18th century. The islands were uninhabited when they were discovered by Europeans.

 

European arrival

West side of Pitcairn Island

"The Landing", Pitcairn Island

Pitcairn landing

 

Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandes de Queirós came upon Ducie and Henderson Islands while sailing for the Spanish Crown, arriving on 26 January 1606. He named them La Encarnación ("The Incarnation") and San Juan Bautista ("Saint John the Baptist"), respectively. However, some sources express doubt about exactly which of the islands were visited and named by Queirós, suggesting that La Encarnación may actually have been Henderson Island, and San Juan Bautista may have been Pitcairn Island.

 

Pitcairn Island was sighted on 3 July 1767 by the crew of the British sloop HMS Swallow, commanded by Captain Philip Carteret. The island was named after midshipman Robert Pitcairn, a 15-year-old crew member who was the first to sight the island. Robert Pitcairn was a son of British Marine Major John Pitcairn, who was later killed at the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill in the American War of Independence.

 

(*HMS Swallow (1745) was a 14-gun Merlin-class sloop launched in 1745, used as an exploration ship from 1763 and sold in 1769.)*  "H.M.S." stands for "His/Her Majesty's Ship" 

 

Carteret, who sailed without the newly invented marine chronometer, charted the island at 25°02′S 133°21′W, and although the latitude was reasonably accurate, his recorded longitude was incorrect by about 3°, putting his coordinates 330 km (210 mi) to the west of the actual island. This made Pitcairn difficult to find, as highlighted by the failure of captain James Cook to locate the island in July 1773.

 

European settlement

 

In 1790, nine of the mutineers from the British naval vessel 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 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 and Ned Young turned to the scriptures, using the ship's Bible as their guide for a new and peaceful society. Young eventually died of an asthmatic infection.

Ducie Island was rediscovered in 1791 by Royal Navy captain Edward Edwards aboard HMS Pandora, while searching for the Bounty mutineers. He named it after Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie, also a captain in the Royal Navy.  * mutineer  [mjùːtəníər] ① 폭도 ② 항명자 ③ 반역자

 

Mutiny_HMS_Bounty

The mutineers turning Bligh and some of the officers and crew adrift from HMS Bounty on 29 April 1789.

 

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. Whalers subsequently became regular visitors to the island. The last recorded whaler to visit was the James Arnold in 1888.

 

View of Pitcairn's Island, South Seas, 1814, J. Shillibeer

 

A report of Folger's discovery was forwarded to the Admiralty, mentioning the mutineers and giving a more precise location of the island: 25°02′S 130°00′W.  However, this was not known to Sir Thomas Staines, who commanded a Royal Navy flotilla of two ships, HMS Briton and HMS Tagus, which found the island at 25°04′S 130°25′W (by meridian observation) on 17 September 1814. Staines sent a party ashore and wrote a detailed report for the Admiralty.  By that time, only one mutineer, John Adams, remained alive. He was granted amnesty for his part in the mutiny.

 

Henderson Island was rediscovered on 17 January 1819 by British Captain James Henderson of the British East India Company ship Hercules. Captain Henry King, sailing on Elizabeth, landed on 2 March to find the king's colours already flying. His crew scratched the name of their ship into a tree. Oeno Island was discovered on 26 January 1824 by American captain George Worth aboard the whaler Oeno.

 

In 1832, having tried and failed to petition the British government and the London Missionary Society, Joshua Hill, an American adventurer, arrived. He reported that by March 1833, he had founded a temperance society to combat drunkenness, a "Maundy Thursday Society", a monthly prayer meeting, a juvenile society, a Peace Society and a school.

Adamstown, the only settlement on the Islands

 

British colony

 

Traditionally, Pitcairn Islanders consider that their islands officially became a British colony on 30 November 1838, at the same time becoming one of the first territories to extend voting rights to women. By the mid-1850s, the Pitcairn community was outgrowing the island; its leaders appealed to the British government for assistance, and were offered Norfolk Island. On 3 May 1856, the entire population of 193 people set sail for Norfolk on board the Morayshire, arriving on 8 June after a difficult five-week trip. However, just 18 months later, 17 of the Pitcairn Islanders returned to their home island, and another 27 followed five years later.

 

HMS Thetis visited Pitcairn Island on 18 April 1881 and "found the people very happy and contented, and in perfect health". At that time the population was 96, an increase of six since the visit of Admiral de Horsey in September 1878. Stores had recently been delivered from friends in England, including two whale-boats and Portland cement, which was used to make the reservoir watertight. HMS Thetis gave the islanders 200 lb (91 kg) of ship's biscuits, 100 lb (45 kg) of candles, and 100 lb of soap and clothing to the value of £31, donated by the ship's company. An American trading ship called Venus had in 1882 bestowed a supply of cotton seed, to provide the islanders with a crop for future trade.

 

 

Pitcairn islanders, 1916

 

In 1886, the Seventh-day Adventist layman John Tay visited Pitcairn and persuaded most of the islanders to accept his faith. He returned in 1890 on the missionary schooner Pitcairn with an ordained minister to perform baptisms. Since then, the majority of Pitcairn Islanders have been Adventists.

*제칠일안식일예수재림교

 

The islands of Henderson, Oeno and Ducie were annexed by Britain in 1902: Henderson on 1 July, Oeno on 10 July, and Ducie on 19 December. In 1938, the three islands, along with Pitcairn, were incorporated into a single administrative unit called the "Pitcairn Group of Islands". The population peaked at 233 in 1937. It has since decreased owing to emigration, primarily to Australia and New Zealand.

 

Sexual abuse in modern times

Three cases of imprisonment for raping underage girls were reported in the 1950s.

In 1999, Gail Cox, a police officer from Kent, UK, served on a temporary assignment on Pitcairn, and uncovered allegations of sexual abuse. When a 15-year-old girl decided to press rape charges in 1999, criminal proceedings (code-named "Operation Unique") were set in motion. The charges include 21 counts of rape, 41 of indecent assault, and two of gross indecency with a child under 14.

 

Over the following two years, police officers in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom interviewed every woman who had lived on Pitcairn in the past 20 years, as well as all of the accused men. These interviews revealed stories of girls as young as three being sexually assaulted and as young as 10 being gang-raped.

 

The file was held by Pitcairn's first Public Prosecutor Simon Moore, an Auckland Crown Solicitor appointed to the position by the British government for the purposes of the investigation.

 

Australian Seventh-day Adventist pastor Neville Tosen, who spent two years on Pitcairn around the turn of the millennium, said that on his arrival, he had been taken aback by the conduct of the children, but he had not immediately realised what was happening. "I noticed worrying signs such as inexplicable mood swings," he said. "It took me three months to realise they were being abused." Tosen tried to bring the matter before the Island Council (the legislative body which doubles as the island's court), but was rebuffed. One councillor told him, "Look, the age of consent has always been 12 and it doesn't hurt them."

 

A study of island records confirmed anecdotal evidence that most girls bore their first child between the ages of 12 and 15. "I think the girls were conditioned to accept that it was a man's world and once they turned 12, they were eligible," Tosen said. Mothers and grandmothers were resigned to the situation, telling him that their own childhood experience had been the same; they regarded it as just a part of life on Pitcairn. One grandmother wondered what all the fuss was about. Tosen was convinced, however, that the early sexual experience was very damaging to the girls, outright stating, "They can't settle or form solid relationships. They did suffer, no doubt about it."

 

In 2016, Mike Warren, Pitcairn mayor from 2008 to 2013, was convicted and sentenced to 20 months imprisonment for possession of child pornography.

 

Sexual assault trials of 2004

 

In 2004, charges were laid against seven men living on Pitcairn and six living abroad. This accounted for nearly a third of the male population, and half of the island's adult males. After extensive trials, most of the men were convicted, some on multiple counts of sexual assaults on children. On 25 October 2004, six men were convicted, including Steve Christian, the island's mayor at the time.  In 2004, the islanders had about 20 firearms among them, which they surrendered ahead of the sexual assault trials.  After the six men lost their final appeal, the British government set up a prison on the island at Bob's Valley. The men began serving their sentences in late 2006. By 2010, all had served their sentences or been granted home detention status.

2004년에는 핏케언에 거주하는 7명의 남성과 해외에 거주하는 6명의 남성이 기소되었습니다. 이는 남성 인구의 거의 1/3, 섬 성인 남성의 절반을 차지했습니다. 광범위한 재판 끝에 대부분의 남성이 유죄 판결을 받았고 일부는 아동에 대한 여러 건의 성폭행 혐의로 유죄 판결을 받았습니다. 2004년 10월 25일, 당시 섬 시장이었던 스티브 크리스찬(Steve Christian)을 포함해 6명의 남성이 유죄 판결을 받았습니다. 2004년 섬 주민들 중에는 총기 20여정이 있었는데 성폭행 재판을 앞두고 반납했다. 6명이 최종 항소에서 패소하자 영국 정부는 밥스 밸리(Bob's Valley) 섬에 감옥을 세웠습니다. 이들 남성은 2006년 말부터 복역을 시작했습니다. 2010년에는 모두 형을 복역했거나 자택 구금 상태를 받았습니다.

 

Geography

 

The Pitcairn Islands form the southeasternmost extension of the geological archipelago of the Tuamotus of French Polynesia, and consist of four islands: Pitcairn Island, Oeno Island (atoll with five islets, one of which is Sandy Island), Henderson Island and Ducie Island (atoll with four islets).

 

The Pitcairn Islands were formed by a centre of upwelling magma called the Pitcairn hotspot. Pitcairn Island is a volcanic remnant primarily formed of tuff, where the north side of the cone has been eroded. Pitcairn is the only permanently inhabited island. Adamstown, the main settlement on the island, lies within the volcanic basin. 

 

Pitcairn is accessible only by boat through Bounty Bay, due to the island's steep cliffs.

 

Henderson Island, covering about 86% of the territory's total land area and supporting a rich variety of animals in its nearly inaccessible interior, is also capable of supporting a small human population despite its scarce fresh water, but access is difficult, owing to its outer shores being steep limestone cliffs covered by sharp coral.

 

In 1988, this island was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

 

The other islands are at a distance of more than 100 km (62 mi) and are not habitable.

Pitcairn Island has no permanent water source; however, the island has three seasonal semi-permanent springs.

 

 

Island or atoll                                Type                                Land area  Total area   Pop. 

                                                                                              (km2)         (km2)        2020      Coordinates

Ducie Island	Atoll†	0.7	3.9	0	24°40′28″S 124°47′10″W
Henderson Island	Uplifted coral island	37.3	37.3	0	24°22′01″S 128°18′57″W
Oeno Island	Atoll†	0.65	16.65	0	23°55′40″S 130°44′30″W
Pitcairn Island	Volcanic island	4.6	4.6	50	25°04′00″S 130°06′00″W
Pitcairn Islands (all islands)	–	43.25	62.45	50	23°55′40″ to 25°04′00″S, 124°47′10″ to 130°44′30″W

 

† Includes reef flat and lagoon of the atolls.

 

View from the east side of Pitcairn Island

NASA Satellite Image of Pitcairn Island in the Pacific Ocean

 

Pitcairn Island_Group

Map of the Pitcairn Islands

Bounty Bay, Pitcairn Island, at dawn

 

Geodesy operations on the Pitcairn Islands

Landing on Pitcairn Island

 

Pitcairn Islands Dark Sky Sanctuary

In March 2019 the International Dark-Sky Association approved the Pitcairn Islands as a Dark Sky Sanctuary. The sanctuary encompasses all 4 islands in the Pitcairn Islands Group for a total land area of 43.25 km2 (163⁄4 sq. mi.).

 

Language

Over 60% of Pitcairn Islanders are descendants of the Bounty mutineers and Tahitians (or other Polynesians). Pitkern is a creole language derived from 18th-century English, with elements of the Tahitian language.  It is spoken as a first language by the population and is taught alongside English at the island's only school. It is closely related to the creole language Norfuk, spoken on Norfolk Island, because Norfolk was repopulated in the mid-19th century by Pitcairners.

 

Church of Adamstown

The only church building on the island is Seventh-day Adventist.

 

Education

Education is free and compulsory between the ages of five and 15. Children up to the age of 12 are taught at Pulau School, while children of 13 and over attend secondary school in New Zealand, or are educated via correspondence school.

 

The island's children have produced a book in Pitkern and English called Mi Bas Side orn Pitcairn or My Favourite Place on Pitcairn.

 

The school on Pitcairn, Pulau School, provides pre-school and primary education based on the New Zealand syllabus. The teacher is appointed by the governor from qualified applicants who are registered in New Zealand as teachers. The government officially took responsibility for education in 1958; the Seventh-day Adventist Church had done so from the 1890s until 1958. There were ten students in 1999; enrolment was previously 20 in the early 1950s, 28 in 1959, and 36 in 1962. The Pulau School has a residence for teachers built in 2004; there was a previous such facility built in 1950.

 

 

Currency

The New Zealand dollar (Māori: tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands.  

Within New Zealand, it is almost always abbreviated with the dollar sign ($). The abbreviations "$NZ" or "NZ$" are used (outside New Zealand) when necessary to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies.

 

The Pitcairn Islands dollar is also official legal tender, although it does not circulate as widely.