Pitcairn Island

deirdre

Top Veteran
One of the most difficult places in the world to get to. World's smallest democracy (though it is a British Overseas Territory). We met about 2/3 of the people on the island the other day.

Just two square miles a thousand miles from anywhere, basically. Or, as we did it, three days west of Easter Island at 20 knots/hr.

Pitcairn.jpg
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Pitcairn-Island.jpg
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I'm fascinated by these surviving fragments of empire, and I've a few books on the subject (Simon Winchester's 'Outposts' is probably the best).

The two things I remember about Pitcairn are that descendants of the Bounty mutineers still live there - some of the surnames have persisted all this time. The other little oddity is that because Pitcairn is a British Overseas Territory and 'nearby' Tahiti is French, if you sail from one island to the other, even though you're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the whole journey takes place within European waters from a legal viewpoint. Not sure if that's true, but it makes a good story,

Thanks for posting, and congratulations on getting a connection!

-R
 
be interesting to see how humans develop there a la Galapagos

what was their speech / language / accent like? archaic? modern? mixed?
 
I'm fascinated by these surviving fragments of empire, and I've a few books on the subject (Simon Winchester's 'Outposts' is probably the best).

I'd love other recommendations. When I get to Bora Bora and have internet where iTunes isn't blocked, I'll pick up Winchester's book.

I loved Ken Jennings's book Maphead, though it's more about the different cultures of geography freaks than anything else.

The two things I remember about Pitcairn are that descendants of the Bounty mutineers still live there - some of the surnames have persisted all this time. The other little oddity is that because Pitcairn is a British Overseas Territory and 'nearby' Tahiti is French, if you sail from one island to the other, even though you're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the whole journey takes place within European waters from a legal viewpoint. Not sure if that's true, but it makes a good story,

Thanks for posting, and congratulations on getting a connection!

Yes, most of the residents are Bounty descendants. Not all, though, as there are people who come in. The Pitcairn Island Study Center keeps a list of residents. Kind of like living in a fishbowl, that.

As far as the European waters aspect, I don't know about that, but I do know we have to be up in the lounge at 7:15 am (ugh) for French Polynesian immigration. One of the very few times I've had to do it in person on a ship.

There are a couple of harder-to-get-to places in the Pacific that I'd love to get to: Wake and Midway come to mind. I keep a list of the Pacific Island countries/territories. After I pick up my 100th country, my goal is to work on that list. Only five are truly difficult to get to and I've been to one of them now.
 
I think you must be on the same cruise a buddy of mine is on. He's not really a photographer, but he's creating "Follow Me's" everywhere the go.
 
be interesting to see how humans develop there a la Galapagos

what was their speech / language / accent like? archaic? modern? mixed?

They were speaking English (sort of a mix between a British, New Zealand, and American accent), but the island language is Pitkern, which is a creole of (18th century) English and Tahitian.
 
OK, the three books I recommend on this subject are:

Outposts - Simon Winchester (1985)
The Last Pink Bits - Harry Ritchie (1997)
The Teatime Islands - Ben Fogle (2003)

They're all enjoyable reads, but since they cover (literally) the same ground, it gets a bit repetitive to read all three.

-R
 
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