Facts of the Day (7/29/26)

1. What happened after the Mutiny on the HMS Bounty on April 28, 1789?  Commanding lieutenant William Bligh (1754-1816) and 18 men loyal to him were set adrift on a launch.  Bligh's efficacy as a leader is debated to this day, but no one can question that he was a masterful navigator.  His first stop was the Tongan island of Tofua; however, after a few days of gathering food and water his men were set upon by natives and narrowly escaped (at the cost of one life).

1790 aquatint by Robert Dodd

Bligh then set out for the Dutch colony of Kupang on Timor, some 4,000 miles of open sea away.  This required rationing supplies to an absurd degree, but his men were highly disciplined.  On May 28, they made landfall on what is now called Ma'alpiku Island and dubbed it "Restoration Island" in honor of May 29 being Oak Apple Day (commemorating the 1660 Stuart Restoration).

Finally, on June 14, Bligh and company reached Kupang.  Although all aboard survived the journey, they were so weakened that most perished either in the Dutch East Indies or on their way home.

2. Edward Edwards (c. 1742-1815) was in charge of HMS Pandora, sent by the Admiralty to corral the Bounty's mutineers.  He picked up several on Tahiti, but missed the ones who had decamped to the Pitcairn Islands, including leader Fletcher Christian.

The Pandora foundered on the Great Barrier Reef in August 1791 and capsized, killing four of the imprisoned mutineers alongside 31 of its own crew.  Once again, an open boat voyage to Timor and then Batavia was necessary.  For Thomas Hayward, this must have felt like the worst kind of déjà vu.

3. The descendants of Fletcher Christian and other mutineers constitute the current population of the Pitcairn Islands.  This is not a good thing.

The office of Mayor of the Pitcairn Islands was created in 1999.  (Before that, the Magistrate was chief executive.)  Initial mayor Steve Christian (1951- ) was removed from office after being found guilty in the 2004 Pitcairn Islands sexual assault trial.

The only one of the seven men accused in that trial to be acquitted, former Magistrate Jay Warren (1956- ), became mayor in 2005.  The next mayor was Mike Warren (1964- ), later jailed for possessing child pornography.  Then came Steve's son Shawn Christian (1975- ).  Yes, Shawn, along with former Magistrate Brian Young (1954- ), had been convicted in 2007 in New Zealand by the Pitcairn Supreme Court for the same sorts of offenses as the men in 2004.  No, that did not stop him from ascending to the post of mayor in 2014.

Even worse, following stints by Jay's daughter Charlene Warren-Peu and non-native Simon Young (no relation to Brian), Shawn Christian was again elected mayor in 2025.