223 years ago this weekend, Fletcher Christian and 17 other sailors held the domineering Captain Bligh at bayonet point against the mast of His Majesty’s Armed Vessel Bounty in the most famous mutiny in history. One month ago, National Geographic embarked on a journey through their footsteps, but with the very different goal of studying the pristine coral reefs of the area (read blogs).
Bligh was set adrift in the ship’s small launch with 18 loyal shipmates, a compass, his journals, some tools, supplies, cutlasses, and food, rum, wine, and water. He navigated the castaways through the open sea some 3000 miles to safety in Timor, and then continued to Britain to begin his attempts to bring all the mutineers to justice at the gallows.
Fletcher Christian led the Bounty back to “Otaheite” where they once again enjoyed laid back island life (and women) until fear of discovery drove them to find a new home where they’d never be discovered by the British law.
That island was Pitcairn. 50 descendants of the mutineers and their Tahitian wives live there to this day. In 1957 National Geographic’s Luis Marden voyaged to Pitcairn and discovered the last remnants of the Bounty in the waters of the island’s bay (read original article, see photos). Now, over the past several weeks, NG Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala has led an expedition to survey the sea-life in the area’s nearly un-touched waters (read blogs, see photos).
In the gallery above, see photos from this most recent expedition, meet some of the locals, see some of the sights, and get a sense of what remains on Pitcairn Island more than two centuries after the legendary mutiny.
More From the Pitcairn Islands Expedition