Pitcairn: Small Island, Many Questions!

Koushik Das

April 13

There were some wooden houses scattered across the island. Those houses belonged to the inhabitants of that island. One can travel to this remote island only by boat. There are a number of islands in the Southern Pacific Ocean, and the only habitable one among them is Pitcairn Island. The Pitcairn Islands, officially Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, are a group of four volcanic islands which are scattered across several hundred miles of ocean and have a combined land area of about 18 square miles (or 47 square kilometres). According to the 2021 census, the population of Pitcairn Island is 47!

A teenage boy had spotted Pitcairn Island first. HMS Swallow, a British warship commanded by Captain Philip Carteret, was sailing over the Pacific Ocean on July 3, 1767. Robert Pitcairn, a 15-year-old boy and a crew member, was the first to sight the island. He was the son of British Marine Major John Pitcairn who was later killed at the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill in the American War of Independence. As Robert spotted the island first, it was named after his surname.

A British ship was stranded near Pitcairn Island in 1790. There were nine British naval officers, six men from the Island of Tahiti, 11 women and one child on that vessel. As all the 27 passengers decided to live on this island, they reportedly burnt down their ship. They used to depend on farming and fishing for their livelihood. After five years, they decided to return to the mainland. They sighted a ship in 1795, and attempted to send signals to its crews. However, the ship did not anchor near the island. The same happened six years later in 1801.

The inhabitants of the island could not communicate with the outside world, in any way. According to historians, another ship passed near the island within a few years. Although crew members of that ship noticed the houses on the island, the captain did not send boats towards Pitcairn. Hence, the inhabitants remained captive on the island until 1808. In February 1808, the American sealing ship, Topaz, under Mayhew Folger, became the first to visit the island. The crew spent 10 hours on Pitcairn, and subsequently whalers became regular visitors to the island. Thereafter, whenever a ship sailed near that island, it used to deliver daily necessities to the islanders.

Pitcairn Island came under British rule on November 30, 1838. In 1850, 193 inhabitants of Pitcairn travelled five weeks to reach nearby Norfolk Island in order to seek permission from the British Government to expand their settlement. After spending 18 months on Norfolk Island, 17 of those 193 people returned to Pitcairn. Another 27 returned to Pitcairn within five years, while the rest settled on Norfolk Island. Pitcairn Island was occasionally aided by Britain. In 1878, the Government of Britain sent two large boats, cement, 91kg biscuits, 45kg candles, 45kg soap and clothes to the islanders. Even Britain sent cotton seeds to Pitcairn Island in 1882 so that the inhabitants could cultivate cotton.

The lack of contact with the outside world mostly affected the women of Pitcairn Island. As per a report, most of them had been sexually assaulted. A 15-year-old girl decided to press rape charges when a British Police Officer, Gail Cox, arrived on Pitcairn in 1999 to serve a temporary assignment. The Police Officers from New Zealand and Australia, too, visited the island shortly after. They talked to the women and came to know that most of them were raped. According to New Zealand and Australian Police, males predominate on Pitcairn Island and girls can get pregnant only at the age of 12 there.

Mike Warren, the Pitcairn Mayor from 2008 to 2013, was named alongside most of the men accused of rape and of possessing child pornography. In 2016, Warren and other accused were convicted and sentenced to 20 months imprisonment for committing crimes. They were released on bail after spending a certain period of time in jail.